Pratt 2019 Thesis . ̌Shot in 2018-2019.

My work focuses on the myth built around Russia, offering documentary-style photographs taken in Moscow. Most of these shots were set up and do not offer an accurate depiction of Russia or what a “Russian image or photograph” might be. These images are not objective in their nature. Documenting selectively and constructing documentary photographs is no different from misinforming.

I am interested in what the viewer would define as a Russian photograph and where the line is between a lie and a reality fabricated by the media. This work is made for the non-Russian viewer and invites them to indulge in a constructed fantasy that parallels that of the news and media, or question what they are looking at and what makes these images Russian. If this work was shown in Russia it would serve a very different function.