Work samples

  • The Me Before The War No Longer Exists / Daria
    The Me Before The War No Longer Exists / Daria

    This wet plate photograph was taken in Germany in the summer of 2023, as a part of a social practice project, The Me Before The War No Longer Exists (Ukrainian Portraits)

  • The Me Before The War No Longer Exists / Anastasia
    The Me Before The War No Longer Exists / Anastasia

    This wet plate photograph was taken in Germany in the summer of 2023, as a part of a social practice project, The Me Before The War No Longer Exists (Ukrainian Portraits)

  • The Me Before The War No Longer Exists / Alena
    The Me Before The War No Longer Exists / Alena

    This wet plate photograph was taken in Germany in the summer of 2023, as a part of a social practice project, The Me Before The War No Longer Exists (Ukrainian Portraits)

  • The Me Before The War No Longer Exists / Mariia
    The Me Before The War No Longer Exists / Mariia

    This wet plate photograph was taken in Germany in the summer of 2023, as a part of a social practice project, The Me Before The War No Longer Exists (Ukrainian Portraits)

About elena

Baltimore City

Elena Volkova is a Ukrainian-born interdisciplinary artist and educator, whose creative practice uses historic and contemporary photographic techniques to explore complex themes of domesticity, liminality, and subjective experience. Volkova has been a fellow at Hamiltonian Artists, exhibited her work nationally and internationally, and received several recognitions and awards in support of her creative practice, including Janis Meyer Traveling Fellowship, Corcoran Women’s Committee Grant, MD… more

The Me Before The War No Longer Exists (Ukrainian Portraits)

The Me Before The War No Longer Exists (Ukrainian Portraits) is a participatory arts project using a historic photographic process to create a visual archive that bears witness to the Ukrainians displaced by war.  The goal of the project is to engage the community in creation of artifacts and facilitate an artistic experience, where the participants feel visible, valued, and their stories preserved. The project allows a way for the participants to shape their own representations and to encourage a dialogue between past and present. The tintype, or wet plate collodion, process makes exposures on metal plates coated with wet silver nitrate. Like a Polaroid, each exposure produces a single image; a single tintype takes about 15 minutes to create, the forced slowness of the process revealing the internal stories in the final portraits.

The portraits in this collection were made in Germany, in the summer of 2023, and feature communities of displaced Ukrainians in Stuttgart, Augsburg, and Berlin.

  • Varia
    Varia

    Wet Plate Collodion photograph.  This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits. 

  • Mariia
    Mariia

    Wet Plate Collodion photograph.  This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits

  • Maryna
    Maryna

    Wet Plate Collodion photograph.  This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits

  • Alina
    Alina

    Wet Plate Collodion photograph.  This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits. 

  • Iva
    Iva

    Wet Plate Collodion photograph.  This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits. 

  • Anastasia
    Anastasia

    Wet Plate Collodion photograph.  This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits. 

  • Alena
    Alena

    Wet Plate Collodion photograph.  This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits. 

  • Daria
    Daria

    Wet Plate Collodion photograph.  This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits. 

  • Vlada
    Vlada

    Wet Plate Collodion photograph.  This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits. 

  • Daria
    Daria

    Wet Plate Collodion photograph.  This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits. 

Anacostia Portraits

Anacostia Portraits is a participatory arts project using a historic photographic process to create a visual archive celebrating the people who make up the Anacostia region of the District of Columbia. In this revival of the 19th century tintype, individuals with a connection to the community were invited to portrait sessions with photographer Elena Volkova, at the Anacostia Arts Center.  Their lives touch on different parts of the varied and changing landscape of Anacostia, which began as a Native American settlement, grew into a center for DC’s African-American community, and now grapples with the push and pull of gentrification. 

Artist Elena Volkova sees Anacostia Portraits as a way for people to shape their own representations, and to encourage a dialogue between past and present. The tintype, or wet plate collodion, process makes exposures on metal plates coated with wet silver nitrate. Like a Polaroid, each exposure produces a single image. However, a single tintype takes about 15 minutes to create. Volkova uses the forced slowness to collaborate with participants, learning enough about each person to reveal their internal stories in a final portrait.

  • E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Ahmad_2.jpg
    E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Ahmad_2.jpg
    This portrait was created in collaboration with the sitter, during the community art public portrait sessions in Anacostia. This original, one-of-a-kind image was made on a metal plate, using the wet plate collodion photographic process, 4x5 in size.
  • E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Artise_1.jpg
    E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Artise_1.jpg
    This portrait was created in collaboration with the sitter, during the community art public portrait sessions in Anacostia. This original, one-of-a-kind image was made on a metal plate, using the wet plate collodion photographic process, 4x5 in size.
  • E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Christian_6.jpg
    E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Christian_6.jpg
    This portrait was created in collaboration with the sitter, during the community art public portrait sessions in Anacostia. This original, one-of-a-kind image was made on a metal plate, using the wet plate collodion photographic process, 4x5 in size.
  • E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Jay_1.jpg
    E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Jay_1.jpg
    This portrait was created in collaboration with the sitter, during the community art public portrait sessions in Anacostia. This original, one-of-a-kind image was made on a metal plate, using the wet plate collodion photographic process, 4x5 in size.
  • E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Lake_2.jpg
    E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Lake_2.jpg
    This portrait was created in collaboration with the sitter, during the community art public portrait sessions in Anacostia. This original, one-of-a-kind image was made on a metal plate, using the wet plate collodion photographic process, 4x5 in size.
  • E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Sia_2.jpg
    E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Sia_2.jpg
    This portrait was created in collaboration with the sitter, during the community art public portrait sessions in Anacostia. This original, one-of-a-kind image was made on a metal plate, using the wet plate collodion photographic process, 4x5 in size.
  • E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Solomon_1.jpg
    E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Solomon_1.jpg
    This portrait was created in collaboration with the sitter, during the community art public portrait sessions in Anacostia. This original, one-of-a-kind image was made on a metal plate, using the wet plate collodion photographic process, 4x5 in size.
  • E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Tambra_1.jpg
    E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Tambra_1.jpg
    This portrait was created in collaboration with the sitter, during the community art public portrait sessions in Anacostia. This original, one-of-a-kind image was made on a metal plate, using the wet plate collodion photographic process, 4x5 in size.
  • E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Trimain_1.jpg
    E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Trimain_1.jpg
    This portrait was created in collaboration with the sitter, during the community art public portrait sessions in Anacostia. This original, one-of-a-kind image was made on a metal plate, using the wet plate collodion photographic process, 4x5 in size.
  • E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Vera_1.jpg
    E.Volkova_Anacostia_Portraits_Vera_1.jpg
    This portrait was created in collaboration with the sitter, during the community art public portrait sessions in Anacostia. This original, one-of-a-kind image was made on a metal plate, using the wet plate collodion photographic process, 4x5 in size.

Meanwhile

Meanwhile is a series of photographs that explores the concept of becoming. Created in the immediate everyday environments, the images are observations of moments in constant flux, which poetically document what it means to be living through this time, and to be compelled to get to know one’s place in a deep introspective way. Experienced through the lens of subjectivity, glimpses of domestic environments are juxtaposed with natural forms, leading into an escapist journey. 
  • 1.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-1358.jpg
    1.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-1358.jpg
  • 2.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-1202.jpg
    2.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-1202.jpg
  • 3.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-1250.jpg
    3.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-1250.jpg
  • 5.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-5956.jpg
    5.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-5956.jpg
  • 6.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-9970.jpg
    6.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-9970.jpg
  • 14.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-0857.jpg
    14.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-0857.jpg
  • 8.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-0016.jpg
    8.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-0016.jpg
  • 9.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-7967.jpg
    9.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-7967.jpg
  • 7.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-7935.jpg
    7.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-7935.jpg
  • 20.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-2852.jpg
    20.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-2852.jpg

Waterlines

"Waterlines" is a collection of black and white and color photographs of water waves, snow, and clouds. Taken from nature, the images suggest tenuity and ephemerality. Clouds, waves, and snowscapes presented on paper with minimum information and vast areas of blank paper suggest interplay between positive and negative space, image and frame, as well as bring the viewerâ??s attention to the reductive nature of the work.
  • 6.volkova,e
    6.volkova,e
  • 7.volkova,e
    7.volkova,e
  • 8.volkova,e
    8.volkova,e
  • 9.volkova,e
    9.volkova,e
  • 1.volkova,e
    1.volkova,e
  • 2.volkova,e
    2.volkova,e
  • 3.volkova,e
    3.volkova,e
  • 4.volkova,e
    4.volkova,e
  • 5.volkova,e
    5.volkova,e
  • 6.volkova,e_1
    6.volkova,e_1

Airscapes

Airscapes is a collection of large scale photo-based prints of clouds that explores the idea of interchange between nothing and something, and its manifestation in everyday reality.

PROOFS

In her recent body of work, Volkova explores the idea of liminal space. By juxtaposing life-size photographs against the real environment where these photos were taken, the intent is to question viewerâ??s perception of real and imaginary space, as well as invite the viewer to contemplate the surrounding and become aware of mundane and often overlooked details of the environment.

Fortune Drawings

In Paperscapes, a series of graphite representational drawings of pieces of paper on white paper, I would like to bring the viewerâ??s attention to the discrepancy between art and reality. Employing the ideas of trompe-lâ??oil, I am interested in the threshold between the real and the false, and the moment at which the two become interchangeable. These drawings are of ordinary, commonplace, and familiar objects, bringing the viewerâ??s attention to the neutrality of a piece of paper, as well as its potential.
  • blankweb
    blankweb
  • changeweb
    changeweb
  • insideweb
    insideweb
  • killingtimeweb
    killingtimeweb

In Between. A site-specific installation

This site-specific exhibition was conceived as a reaction to overlooked details in the gallery space, as well as intended to bring the viewer's attention to the liminal state that exists between the artwork and the real environment. All pieces are graphite on paper.
  • Untitled (from In Between.  Installation)
    Untitled (from In Between. Installation)
    In this site specific installation the pieces are installed in a row across from each other. The piece on the left is a drawing of the shadow that is cast by the piece on the right. And the piece on the right represents a shadow found in the gallery. When the installation is viewed, I intend to invite the viewer to employ apperception, memory, and comparison, as well as question the boundary of the real and the imaginary.
  • Untitled.  In Between installation shot
    Untitled. In Between installation shot
    In this site specific installation the pieces are installed in a row across from each other. The piece on the left is a drawing of the shadow that is cast by the piece on the right. And the piece on the right represents a shadow found in the gallery. When the installation is viewed, I intend to invite the viewer to employ apperception, memory, and comparison, as well as question the boundary of the real and the imaginary.
  • Untitled (Key Light)
    Untitled (Key Light)
    This graphite-on-paper piece represents the exact shadows that were cast by the pieces that were previously displayed on the gallery wall.
  • Untitled (from In Between(
    Untitled (from In Between(
    In this site specific installation the pieces are installed in a row across from each other. The piece on the left is a drawing of the shadow that is cast by the piece on the right. And the piece on the right represents a shadow found in the gallery. When the installation is viewed, I intend to invite the viewer to employ apperception, memory, and comparison, as well as question the boundary of the real and the imaginary.
  • Untitled
    Untitled
    In this site specific installation the pieces are installed in a row across from each other. The piece on the left is a drawing of the shadow that is cast by the piece on the right. And the piece on the right represents a shadow found in the gallery. When the installation is viewed, I intend to invite the viewer to employ apperception, memory, and comparison, as well as question the boundary of the real and the imaginary.

Proofs II

Proofs is a site-specific photography installation that invites the viewer to examine the space as well as his/her own relationship to the environment. The images are photographs of the space, some printed exact size of the spacial detail, and re-introduced back into the space, creating dichotomy between the real and the imaginary. Emphasizing the sense of emptiness, Volkova photographed the details of the empty gallery environment, paying close attention to light and shadows, as well as subtle details that exist in the space. The untraditional display of the photographs creates a specific relationship between the viewer's body, artwork, and the environment. The goal for this project is to bring attention to the overlooked moment of the everyday.
  • 14-volkova-proofs-ii.jpg
    14-volkova-proofs-ii.jpg
  • 18-volkova-proofs-ii.jpg
    18-volkova-proofs-ii.jpg
  • 13-volkova-proofs-ii-corner3.jpg
    13-volkova-proofs-ii-corner3.jpg
  • 12-volkova-proofs-ii-corner1.jpg
    12-volkova-proofs-ii-corner1.jpg
  • 07-30.jpg
    07-30.jpg
  • 04-30.jpg
    04-30.jpg
  • 06-25.jpg
    06-25.jpg
  • 08-28.jpg
    08-28.jpg
  • 05-29.jpg
    05-29.jpg

Paperscapes

Paperscapes is a series of graphite and silverpoint drawings that brings attention to simple overlooked moments of the everyday. In this body of work, Volkova focuses on the relationship between the real and the imaginary and the way the marginal and the peripheral exists as the main subject of the work. In Folds, Volkova examines the landscape that exists in the paper by reiterating the shadows with pencil marks. These drawings are "light-specific", and have to be carefully lit from a certain angle when on view. In the Edge, a series of 20x30 silverpoints, the viewer is invited to examine the drawing of a shadow in the relationship to the actual shadow casted on the wall.
  • edge-5.jpg
    edge-5.jpg
  • edge-4.jpg
    edge-4.jpg
  • edge-3.jpg
    edge-3.jpg
  • edge-2.jpg
    edge-2.jpg
  • edge-1.jpg
    edge-1.jpg
  • fold-1200.jpg
    fold-1200.jpg
  • folds-1301.jpg
    folds-1301.jpg
  • fold-1401.jpg
    fold-1401.jpg
  • fold-1302.jpg
    fold-1302.jpg