Nata Drachinskaya on Her Award-Winning Artist Book 'Binom' and the Intersection of Grief, Politics, and Materiality
Nata Drachinskaya's artist book, 'Binom,' garnered the LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award in 2025 after being shortlisted for the APhF:24 Dummy Award during the Athens Photo Festival. This poignant work explores her father's suicide in 2001, blending personal stories with themes of Soviet repression. Drachinskaya, a former economics and communications professional turned photographer in 2014, studied at Moscow's Institute of Contemporary Art. After relocating from Russia in 2022, she has embraced art using paper and concrete. While in Tokyo at Reminders Photography Stronghold, she published 92 copies of 'Binom' and is currently developing a project centered on her great-grandfather’s Stalin-era imprisonment.
Key facts
- Nata Drachinskaya's artist book 'Binom' won the LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award in 2025.
- 'Binom' was a finalist for the APhF:24 Dummy Award at the Athens Photo Festival.
- The book addresses the artist's father's suicide in 2001 and Soviet-era political repression.
- Drachinskaya originally earned a degree in economics and worked in communications before turning to photography in 2014.
- She studied at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow.
- She left Russia in 2022 and now lives in California.
- The book was self-published in an edition of 92 copies during a residency at Reminders Photography Stronghold in Tokyo.
- A solo exhibition of 'Binom' was curated by Miki Hasegawa at Reminders Photography Stronghold.
- Drachinskaya's current project focuses on her great-grandfather, a political prisoner in a Stalin-era labor camp.
- She is inspired by Haruki Murakami's 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' and The Moth.
Entities
Artists
- Nata Drachinskaya
- Yumi Goto
- Miki Hasegawa
- Haruki Murakami
Institutions
- Athens Photo Festival
- LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award
- Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow
- Reminders Photography Stronghold
- Multimedia Art Museum
- Winzavod
- MMOMA
- Nick Gallery
- Pacific Art League
- Griffin Museum of Photography
- New Museum
- Lenscratch
Locations
- Moscow
- Russia
- Tokyo
- Japan
- California
- USA
- Armenia
- UAE
- Pécs
- Hungary
- Kyoto
- Palo Alto
- Winchester
- Los Gatos
- Georgia