Yelena Zhavoronkova

Not long ago I surprised myself by starting working with flowers. I love flowers. They are not particularly love me back, but this is another story. I never thought I would be interested in making the portraits of peonies, irises, hyacinths or lilacs, because I am not really fond of the flowers' depictions. Transferred to the canvas or on paper, they are loosing their liveliness, just lying flat dead on the surface.

But recently I found a helpful relief photographing flowers while living through uneasy time, mourning the loss of my late sister. The whole process of working on the project helped me to connect with her once again and also helped me to ease the tight knot of emotions living in me at that time–from love to frustration, from anger to loneliness and sadness.

I photographed only "our" flowers, the ones connecting just the two of us. They had been chosen not for their specific beauty, but for the place and role they played in our lives: the simple field daisies of our childhood, which we picked up on our summer vacations; rare instances of fragrant hyacinths, cheering us while it was not all sunny and splendid during our early adult years; the unruly brunches of lilacs, so luscious but so short lived in the captivity.

FLOWERS is the third part of collection of images (NUMBERS, THE DAY, FLOWERS) dedicated to the memory of my late sister Irina.

Consisted of 15 silver gelatin prints, 6"x6", on 8"x10" fiber paper.