The Me Before The War No Longer Exists: Ukrainian Portraits / Elena Volkova

Stevenson University Exhibition Department Press Release
The Me Before The War No Longer Exists: Ukrainian Portraits
Elena Volkova
September 9 – December 14, 2024
The School of Design, Arts and Communication Lobby Gallery
Receptions: Thursday Sept 26 4-6pm and Saturday November 9, 1-4pm
The Me Before The War No Longer Exists: Ukrainian Portraits is a participatory project that engagesthe
community of Ukrainians displaced by war in collaborative creation of wet plate collodion portraits,
with the aim to provide a platform for refugees to reclaim their sense of selfhood.
The project is framed through photography’s function to reflect society and convey truth, poetically.
Utilizing it as a form social practice, I facilitate collaborative creation of portraits, using the historic
wet plate collodion process, digital photography, and video. I am interested in emergent properties of
collaboration and the agile process of shaping images, where the experience of making is centered.
Ukrainian Portraits aims to bring visibility to people displaced by war, who are engaged in a delicate
negotiation between their personal lives, communal backgrounds, and their emerging identities as
displaced individuals. This project is guided by my own experiences of displacement; it addresses the
themes of belonging, ambiguity, liminality, and subjectivity. The resulting images reflect a sense of
transition, becoming, or, being in between, woven into the project’s narrative of reclaiming one’s
selfhood. My creative role intertwines with the complexities of immigration, trauma, loss, and
ambiguity that surrounds it. Through shared presence and creative collaboration, a unique artistic
experience emerges, blurring the lines between the subject, creator, and audience.
Bio: Elena Volkova is a Ukrainian-born artist and educator, whose creative practice uses historic and
contemporary photographic techniques to delve into the complex themes of liminality by exploring
the nuances of subjective experiences. Volkova exhibited nationally and internationally, and has been
a recipient of Rubys Grant, Baltimore Municipal Art Society Travel Prize, and a fellow at Hamiltonian
Artists, in addition to other recognitions and awards that support her creative practice. Volkova has
been a social practice resident artist at Maryland Center for History and Culture, Anacostia Arts
Center, and Maker General among others, and her work is included in various private and public
collections, including Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore Museum of Art, and MDHC. Volkova
resides in Baltimore, MD and teaches Photography at Stevenson University.
The School of Design, Arts and Communication Lobby Gallery is located on the
NORTH campus, 11100 Ted Herget Lane, Owings Mills, MD 21117. The gallery is open
9–5pm M-F, 11am–4pm Saturday, or by appointment.
For more information about this exhibition contact Lori Rubeling, Faculty Director of
Exhibitions, Lrubeling@stevenson.edu. Additional information about Stevenson
University’s Exhibition Program can be found at www.stevenson.edu/arts.