MOTHER&DAUGHTER

These photographs tell the story of two women separated by distance, yet bound by an invisible thread of love. The mother remains in a village in the Tambov region, in an old wooden house without modern amenities, where every creak of the floorboards reminds her of the past. Here, her husband and son are buried; here, the walls hold the memory of generations. She refuses to leave—as if afraid that by abandoning this place, the last connection to those who are gone would be severed.

The daughter lives in the Moscow suburbs, in a new apartment building, with a mortgage hanging over her. Her life is a rush of work and installment payments.

She calls her mother, but a voice on the phone cannot replace the warmth of her hands.

In one of the photographs, the daughter has come to visit her mother on one of her rare weekends. In the evening, they flipped through old photo albums in the kitchen, sharing tea and humble conversations. During the day, they visited the cemetery. Now, the daughter hugs her mother and strokes her hair, just as her mother once hugged and comforted her in childhood.

The mother will never say, "Come live with me," and the daughter will never admit how weary she is of this unfamiliar city.

This photo series is about a choice that cannot be called wrong. It is about how memory holds us where it hurts, while the future beckons us to where we feel alone.