Work samples
About elena
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
Wet Plate Collodion photograph. This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits.
-
Mariia
Wet Plate Collodion photograph. This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits
-
Maryna
Wet Plate Collodion photograph. This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits
-
Alina
Wet Plate Collodion photograph. This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits.
-
Iva
Wet Plate Collodion photograph. This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits.
-
Anastasia
Wet Plate Collodion photograph. This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits.
-
Alena
Wet Plate Collodion photograph. This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits.
-
Daria
Wet Plate Collodion photograph. This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits.
-
Vlada
Wet Plate Collodion photograph. This image was taken as a part of a participatory project, Ukrainian Portraits.
-
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.jpgThis 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.jpgThis 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.jpgThis 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.jpgThis 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.jpgThis 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.jpgThis 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.jpgThis 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.jpgThis 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.jpgThis 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.jpgThis 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
-
1.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-1358.jpg
-
2.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-1202.jpg
-
3.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-1250.jpg
-
5.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-5956.jpg
-
6.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-9970.jpg
-
14.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-0857.jpg
-
8.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-0016.jpg
-
9.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-7967.jpg
-
7.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-7935.jpg
-
20.E.Volkova_Meanwhile-2852.jpg
Waterlines
PROOFS
Fortune Drawings
In Between. A site-specific 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 shotIn 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)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(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.
-
UntitledIn 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.