Diana Smykova: Photography, Film, and the Search for Home

Diana Smykova, a photographer and filmmaker raised in the Russian Far North, explores themes of home, memory, and belonging through documentary and fine art practices. Her work spans photography, filmmaking, video art, and textile collaborations. A major project involved traveling through isolated northern villages in Russia, using folklore and oral histories to create a portrait of resilient communities. More recently, she collaborated with textile artist Maria Motyleva in Saudi Arabia, creating cyanotype fragments on cloth with embroidery that examine women's invisibility in family genealogies. The project used shadows of desert plants as a metaphor. Smykova cites Japanese photographer Masao Yamamoto as a key influence. She plans future work in Aswan, Egypt's Nubian region.