Project I’m working on now, advice and feedback very welcome! posted on November 22nd, 2009
These are a few images from a project that I shot this summer in Moscow. The work is about women who work in the oil and gas industry in Russia, in a variety of different roles. I am interested in showing the individuals within this huge, faceless, traditionally masculine, environmentally destructive industry. I would like to make a connection between how Russia’s economy is absolutely dependent on this resource, and how capitalist society is contingent on the unpaid work of women. I also want to explore the idea of oil and gas as materials that are in some way ancient and sacred -formed as they are deep within the earth over millions of years.
My problem is that none of this is communicated in the images! I need to activate them somehow, most probably with text (I interviewed each subject about their job, their opinions about Russian society since Perestroika, the position of women and so on), but perhaps also with some kind of sculptural element incorporating oil by-product materials…. This might be overkill though as mixing photo with other mediums can often be too much….. But even if I just use text is will have to be presented in a beautiful and sculptural way, I don’t want it just below the image like a caption….yurg. I am very confused. So if anyone has suggestions for work I should look at, or reactions to these photos -what kind of feeling you get from them etc, that would be super helpful.
