Exhibitions

Lucia Ganieva is most successful with photographic series containing portraits of people in their environment. By means of portraits of people and their space she wants to illustrate social issues. Most of her work she makes in Russia, because of her roots and her strong connection with the Russian people and society.

After having tried a career in the fashion branch Lucia Ganieva started her studies at the Foto Academy Amsterdam in 2004. Quite soon it became clear that she is very talented.

Even before she graduated she made some very interesting series of photographs. She was invited to exhibit them in a well known Dutch gallery, and she won a gold award in the prestigious PANL Awards contest.

The PANL Awards is the most important contest for photographers in the Netherlands, where each year participate many professional photographers and students from the academy.

Gold Awards are granted very seldom by the jury, for example in 2006 not one Gold Award was attributed, and in 2007 only 3, of which Lucia got one.

In May 2007 Lucia graduated with an honours degree (cum laude). Right after her graduation she looked out for possibilities to promote her work.

In July 2007 she went to Arles to participate in the portfolio viewings, part of the internationally well known festival Rencontres d'Arles.

Her participation was quite successful. Two of the expert viewers chose her work as best port folio, each for a different series of images. There she also met with Mr.M.Schilt from the Dutch publisher Mets & Schilt, who agreed to publish a book with one of her photo-series (Sunset of Fame).

The publisher is internationally recognised and has been publishing quite a lot of important editions.

The book will probably be in the shops end of 2008, early 2009.

Further in 2007 Lucia was a prize winner in the IPA contest, with a first and a second prize in the category Portraiture. The IPA contest is a very big contest, organized in the USA, with over 40.000 participants. On top of her merits one of her photographs was chosen for the ‘Best of Show' exhibition, a choice of 35 photographs to be exhibited all around the world in several big cities during a one year tour.

In 2008 she also already has achieved several successes. She was nominated for the awards in two Dutch competitions, the Photo Academy Awards and the PANL Awards. In the French Px3 contest she was awarded with an honourable merit.

For the Sony World Photography Awards she was chosen on the shortlist of 10 best entries in the category Portraiture, out of over 76.000 competitors.

Her work is exhibited during the Moscow Photo Biennale (Russia) and the Bucharest Biennale BB3 (Romania), besides a range of smaller manifestations.

A number of magazines in different countries have published her work.

Recently in a competition opened by the Dutch foundation Fotodok Lucia has won a stipendium of € 2500,00 to do a new project, that will be exhibited in September 2008 in Utrecht (NL).

In 1895 in St.Petersburg, on the initiative of an actress named M.G.Savina a home was founded for retired stage-artists. The purpose was to make it possible for people, having dedicated their entire life to the theatre, to enjoy their old age in a pleasant environment and between others of equal spirit.

The photo series made by me, Lucia Ganieva, contains 25 portraits of inhabitants of the home and also photographs taken in the interiors of the buildings and the rooms of the inhabitants and photographs from the time the inhabitants still were active in their careers.

MEMORIES

The Tiltenberg at Vogelzang is the Great Seminary of the diocese Haarlem (Netherlands) where students are educated for priesthood.

I have wondered, which youngster in this time and in this world chooses to become a priest, and for what reasons.

I also wanted to find out what it means for a young seminary student to live in two such different worlds, the one of the Catholic Church and the one of modern Dutch society.

In a series of portraits of students at the Tiltenberg, completed with photographs of interiors, made in the seminary, and in their own student rooms, I have documented my vision.

The portraits show where the students are standing in the process of preparation for priesthood. In combination with the portraits the photographs of interiors show the field of tension between the ecclesiastical and the civil world.

The photographs are presented in the order in which they have been printed in a book (numbered from 1 to 28);

The order is: first a portrait, then a combination of photographs made in the private room of the portrayed student, and then a still from the common spaces in the seminary. Thus sequences of each time 3 photographs are combined.

The series has been made as final project for graduation at the Photography Academy Amsterdam.

Lucia Ganieva