Natalia Sharamova & the Ukrainian Art Group:
Invisible Visible

Invisible Visible is an exhibition of collaborative, narrative portrait photographs by Natalia Sharamova and the Ukrainian Art Group as well as artworks by the group created during the year-long mentorship project Putting Ourselves in the Picture - Part 2. Co-curated by Natalia Sharamova and Fast Forward Director Anna Fox, the exhibition will feature a film by celebrated artist and photographer Ori Gersht.

The narrative portraits, which make up a large part of the exhibition, are collaborations between sitter and photographer. The Ukrainian women in the photographs, who came to live in the UK as refugees when Russia invaded Ukraine, wanted to tell their stories through image and text. Working together Sharamova and each of the women she photographed spoke about the story they wanted to tell with their image. Their written stories feature in the exhibition catalogue which accompanies the exhibition.

Speaking about the photo series Natalia Sharamova says: “Invisible Visible is about strength in weakness. When losing everything, you find yourself in something new. Every photo is complemented by a life story. But also the photo by itself - is a story. It’s about seeing yourself in context within the environment you are in. It takes you away from the invisible to a new reality. It's about being present – about feeling the heart beat.”

There are paintings, ceramics and other artworks made by the women at their bi-weekly sessions at Creative Response, some of which feature in the portraits. Creative Response is a Farnham-based arts organisation that has dedicated space to the group for the last three years since they moved to the town. The space to meet has been a lifeline for the members of the group who come to make art, share food and stories of home.

The cyanotype and collage works on display were created during Putting Ourselves in the Picture 2 workshops run by artists Maria Kapajeva and Marilene Ribeiro. Using photo montage and the historic process of cyanotype, where objects are placed on light sensitive material in the sun to create an image, the group created story-telling artworks.

Putting Ourselves In The Picture – Part 2: Engaging with Industry is a Fast Forward project in collaboration with five pioneering organisations: Women for Refugee Women and Autograph in London, Creative Response in Farnham, National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh and Work Show Grow online. Each organisation worked with a community of marginalized women and non-binary people to run a mentorship programme. The focus was on developing relationships with the photography industries that could oYer work experiences such as day long field visits, workshops and talks with industry partners.

Putting Ourselves in the Picture – Part 2: Engaging with Industry is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, University for Creative Arts and project partners.

Further information:

To find out more about Fast Forward please go to this link: https://fastforward.photography

To find out more about Putting Ourselves in the Picture part 2 please go to this link: https://fastforward.photography/our-projects/poitp-2-engaging-with-industry-2024/

To find out more about Creative Response, please go to this link: https://creativeresponsearts.org

Contact information for press and media:

For further information, images or interviews please contact corinne.whitehouse@uca.ac.uk or 07946 471 454.

The programme supported the participants to develop new skills and knowledge about the professional fields of photography and how to connect to valuable networks. Skills such as developing websites, CVs, social media and promotional materials were demonstrated and developed alongside technical photographic knowledge which the project participants used to create artistic outputs.