What does isolation mean to us? How do we feel about it once it’s imposed and our freedom is taken away? Those are just a few questions that have popped-up to many minds over the past weeks. Now that social distancing has become the new norm, creatives all over the world seek to create something out of it. Photographer and art director Anna Radchenko dedicated her work to the current situation, before she knew a real lockdown would become current state of the world.
Cover photo: © Anna Radchenko
Social distancing and isolation
COVID-19 has a big impact on many industries. For example, the luxury industry and the fashion industry have been hit hard. But that’s not all: while artists might have all the time in the world to create free work now, their future is precarious as well. Photographer and Anna Radchenko used social distancing and self-isolation as the main source of inspiration for her photo series. When creating them, she didn’t even know that a lockdown would become the new reality.
The Melancholy Rooms
In the first set of photos, The Melancholy Rooms, Radchenko focused on the the idea of living in a hyper-connected society, in which technology plays a vital role in how we relate to one another. Our phones are meant to make us more connected to each other, but actually makes the relationships between people more superficial. Disconnection is lurking. When meeting in real life, on the contrary, we begin to fully understand the value and potential of this technology.
Baby Cribs
In her second series, Radchenko focused on the imprisonment of self-isolation and how in these trying times we tend to revert back to our most basic needs. While the government and international politics create more and more restrictions to daily life, we give up all control and almost regress to a state of infancy in the belief that we’ll be looked after and cared for. Feeling imprisoned, alienated and powerless, our homes reflect the extent of our freedom and control.
Anna Radchenko adds: “Although these photos were shot before the international lockdown, they’ve become even more relevant in the current landscape. We find ourselves in an alternative reality, where we have to change our habits and some of our traits as we are spending so much time on our own. Much of what we took for granted, including the freedom to leave our homes, go to work and meet people, has been replaced by a growing feeling of uncertainty and confinement.”
These photos perfectly expose the current situation we live in – evoking many questions about what the new normal will look like. Will we be isolated forever? Will we be able to go back to the pre-corona society and live our free lives? No one knows. Meanwhile, we love to get inspired by talented creatives who interpret the current state of the world in their own way.
Credits
Creative director and Photorapher: Anna Radchenko @anna_radchenko
3d: Dimitri Rimss at Enjoy Rendering @enjoyrendering
Make-up Artists: Olga Zvereva, Galina Mahacheva, Galina Pashinina
Set designers: Taya Dodina and Zolotoya Staya
Also read: Digital fashion weeks: the new normal?
