"Dom"
90 pages
self-published
year of publication: 2023

Dom stands for "home" and "house" in Russian. This topic has always been sensitive in my family. My great grandfather's home was destroyed twice because of dekulakization — the Soviet campaign of political repressions. My family was forced to move twice; the first time was when I was three, after the 1998 Russian financial crisis.

The project explores different edges of feeling at home, losing home, and trying to find one. I interviewed my friends from Russia and Ukraine and captured them in their current apartments abroad with the objects that create the ephemeral sensation of being at home. Most of them moved after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The aim of Dom is not to compare the stories, but to delve into the definition of home and its multiple layers and find answers to the questions that have remained central within me since my childhood — and now, have become even more crucial.