I was born in Brussels in 1982, and photography has always been my way of understanding the world. After studying law in Brussels and political science in Belgium and Latvia, I moved to Moscow in 2006. It was there, immersed in a new culture, that my self-taught practice as a photographer began to take shape, blending personal exploration with documentary storytelling.
In 2013, I traveled across Russia by taxi, from West to East. This journey revealed a rapidly changing country but also traces of the Russia I first encountered in its museums and galleries. Immersing myself in Russian art shaped my approach to photography, drawing inspiration from the raw, unfiltered style of the 1980s and 1990s, where political and social upheavals took center stage.
In 2015, I moved to London and refined my documentary practice further. Covering Trump’s 2016 campaign in the U.S., where SLR cameras were banned, I began using iPhone camera exclusively. This shift reconnected me to the timeless quality of ancient photographs found in our family attic, where imperfections were part of the story. This evolution culminated in Lost in TrumpNation, my 2019 solo exhibition in London.
Since 2019, I’ve lived in Russia, where I continue to explore life through my lens. Today, amidst the war in Ukraine, I navigate the duality of my Western roots and Russian immersion. This perspective shapes "Лунатик – Lunatic ", my latest project.
