Maria, please introduce yourself to our readers.
I am 26 years old. I was born and lived in the city of Kherson. I studied German and English philology at the Kherson National Technical University. I have been working as a photographer since 2021.
How did you choose your first profession?
I’ve always had a talent for languages, they came easily to me, and I wanted to translate films, books, TV series, i.e. do creative translation. But it didn’t work out. After graduating, I was faced with the fact that the market for creative translation in Ukraine was too small, and I couldn’t find a way to fit in.
I tried my hand at some very ordinary jobs. After just three months, I was burnt out on the five-day week and wondered what to do next. I came to the conclusion that I should try photography. I had always liked it, but I had never thought of it as a way to make money or as my main job. And at some point I decided why not try it now.
Even though we’re seeing a surge in demand for Ukrainian books, I’m not sure I’d go back to translating. Because the skill has been lost: a language you don’t actively use is quickly forgotten. I try to maintain at least a conversational level of English: almost all my household, entertainment, and photography content is in English. At first, I did this consciously, but now I realise that not much professional content is translated, so reading in English opens up a much wider range of knowledge for me. German has unfortunately been forgotten. Photography has covered the need for self-expression and income. So it’s hard to imagine me going back to translation now.
Did you learn photography from scratch?
I’ve been into photography for a long time. It was always with my mobile phone. I never had any photographic equipment until I started doing it professionally.
When I was a teenager and young adult, I took a lot of pictures of myself. I was fatter than my peers, so I had self-esteem issues. It was photography that helped me see myself as beautiful and finally accept my body. This knowledge helped me later to take pictures of other women who had the same problems as me, because I clearly understood how they felt and what photography could give them. I’m interested in photographing women, showing the theme of love for their bodies and also doing couple shoots — photographing love.
Before the shoot I talk through every aspect of the process as much as possible, guiding the person into the depths of their desires and helping them decide what they want to get. During the shoot I try to create the most comfortable and safe atmosphere possible, so that the person is not afraid to look ridiculous or awkward, but instead is willing to open up. It is only when you let go of control and trust that you get the best photos. Often, my clients and I find that we enjoy communicating and continue to do so.
Your profile says that you are a photographynia instead of a photograph (here we’ve used transliteration, so that the English word will be very much the same as the Ukrainian one, just spelled with English letters, to empathize the difference in those two words depending on the gender — ed.). Is that a conscious use of the feminine gender?
Five years ago, when I graduated from university, my thesis was entitled “The Use of Femininities in Publicistic Texts in Ukrainian and German”. So I researched the topic and studied it thoroughly. At that time, it was at the height of discussion and caused a lot of debate. Several years have passed, and I see how much easier it is for Ukrainians to use feminine gender expressions, how much more comfortable they are for them to understand.
The Ukrainian language is made for feminine pronouns: they are easy to form and sound good. The German language is even more positive towards this category of words, which have been rooted there for a long time and are used 100% of the time, at least in journalistic texts. I believe that their everyday use is the best way to promote this linguistic phenomenon and the role and visibility of women in society, science and other areas of life.
Your Ukrainian is wonderful. Did you speak it in Kherson before 2022?
Unfortunately, no. Before the full-scale invasion, Kherson was dominated by Russian-speaking people, which was the result of Russian propaganda. I remember how much resistance there was among my friends when, according to the law, Ukrainian had to be spoken in the service sector. It is more than surprising now, but at that time my view was also blurred because I was also completely Russian-speaking. This was recorded on my Instagram page.
During the occupation, I continued to speak Russian, but I was already consciously using Ukrainian in my correspondence and social media. When we left Kherson for Kyiv, I started speaking Ukrainian.
You started your business before the full-scale invasion and have been working in a full-scale war for over two years. Have you noticed any changes in people?
Yes, we have. Before, most women asked to be made beautiful and sexy in photos. Now most requests are to see themselves as they are, naturally. And also just to capture themselves as a memory, just to have photos, because you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.
Translator: Ivan Chepaykin
