MILA AND THE STORM (2026)
I found her in a local coffee shop in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul, drinking the same espresso she liked back in Moscow. She had travelled here when everyone left after the sanctions came and I wanted to visit, since there was no chance of our meeting in Moscow or London. Her posture had not changed since we were at school in Georgiyevsk – drinking tinctures in abandoned buildings, listening to the Arctic Monkeys – but she wore a mask of some kind, which only became distinct when I got closer.
Mila and the Storm is a novel-as-photoseries: 70 photographs that trace the fictional story of Mila, a Russian makeup artist who escapes her small town in the North Caucasus to live abroad. In Istanbul she meets her former school friend, Anastasia – now a photographer based in London – who begins to photograph her. Later, after Mila’s visa comes through, she takes her own images in London. Anastasia curates their work into a series, until it becomes unclear who is author and who is subject: who sees and who is seen.
The work explores how photography both reveals and conceals the psyche. Mila’s journey unfolds across three locations – her birthplace in Tbilisi, the liminal space of Istanbul, and the fresh ground of London – each representing a shifting relationship between freedom and control. The ghost of Russia and its recent history hovers over the work, caught in the glass of memory and desire. Identity is reflected in a hybrid cityscape or dreamscape, a terrain that is explored and re-explored. Mirrors, windows, reflections and veils abound.
Shot on both medium format and 35mm with a range of stocks, harmonised into one overarching visual world, Mila and the Storm is an act of reclamation – a search for something intimate and unrepeatable, where the protagonist seeks control of herself through creative adventure. It invites the viewer to question how images define us, how we internalise their power, and whether freedom can exist through art.
AWARDS
Mila and the Storm was named a Winner at the London International Creative Competition (LICC) 2023 and received Honourable Mentions at the Prix de la Photographie Paris (PX3) 2024 and the International Photography Awards (IPA) 2026.
