Creative Shortlist

My son is five. He is still too young to be fully responsible for himself, but he's already mature enough to say “no” and it must be taken into account. Accepting his growing-up is difficult for me. For quite a while I refused to admit this to myself, as the excessive anxiety for the child seemed justified. After all, the child was still very young. But when will he be grown up enough to recognise himself as a separate person from his mother?

Here, I explore the topic of psychological separation between me and my son. We are not a single whole, but different people. And that's great but it's still not so easy at first. fear and anxiety for the child sometimes take over. This story is about my feelings and fears, expressed metaphorically. A story about how overprotection and attachment can become traumatic."

Julia Ovchinnikova. Visual artist working with photography, objects and collage. The central theme of her projects is mentality, personal boundaries and motherhood.

Born in Kansk, Krasnoyarsk region in 1992. Working as a photographer since 2018. Since 2021 is a student of Academy of documentary and art photography “Fotografika”.