At the end of 2021 I was looking into the future with optimism. The covid pandemic that had taken over the whole world began to recede and most of the restrictions were removed in many countries. State borders were opened and, like many of my Russian colleagues, I was looking forward to new trips, exhibitions, forums and international events. We were all moving into a new era full of peaceful communication and prosperity.
These plans were not meant to be realized. February 2022 was marked by the beginning of the continuous military conflict. To accept and understand the new reality turned out to be too difficult for many Russian-speaking authors. Some of them tried to resist, others emigrated and continued working, still others became desperate.
During the spring months of 2022, I was emotionally low and did not have any artistic shootings. The impossibility of accepting the new reality evoked in me a wish to leave the ground and find myself in an imaginary world without wars and aggression. I managed to materialize these emotions in the photo-studio, with the help of the artificial cloud as if descended from the paintings of the surrealist Rene Magritte. The individual in the snapshot is the reflection of my own consciousness that was not ready at that moment to firmly keep both feet on the ground. But just like sleep ends with awakening, the flight in the clouds was doomed to finish with a landing and return to reality.
