The idea of taking street photos came to me after the birth of my daughter. It was the third year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, during which time I photographed countless destitute and maimed people, destroyed homes, soldiers, rescuers, volunteers, etc. Living 30 km from the front, I see the daily impact of the war on it. In 2024, I gave birth to my daughter. The direction of my work changed: photography remained a documentation of the consequences of war, but now I worked more on projects and complex themes of loss and rehabilitation. I started spending more time walking with my child. I would choose a certain area of the city and just walk along familiar and unfamiliar streets of the city. Of course, I always had my camera with me, now it’s lighter and more compact, just for such walks. I started to notice some typical elements of our yards that had existed here since the Soviet Union. On the one hand, I was disappointed by how tightly this Soviet era was embedded in our culture, and on the other hand, I saw this photography as something of a therapy compared to photographing the aftermath of war. My eyes and head seemed to rest and these walks became meditative. This is how two series of photographs were born: “Like in the 90s” and “The Bench of Life.”