My phone alarm rings every day at 12 o’clock (Moscow time). It’s time to take a photo and send it to my father through WhatsApp. At the same moment, my father also takes a picture and sends it to me. We’re doing this for more than five years. Ten years ago I moved to Zurich, 3 000 km away from my parents who live in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. It became a task to arrange communication with my parents. I can’t really talk to my father by phone – we start to argue real quick (over advice, over politics, over my brother). In 2016, my father and I got an idea to do a photo at the same time – 12 o’clock – and send it to each other through WhatsApp. Every day, same time. Looking back at all the photos we’ve taken and shared, I see an image of modern digital communication between a father and a daughter, between two close, but separate people living in different worlds and trying to communicate through simple direct images, because other communication means hard work. A lot of big and small events happened to both of us since we started. I got a child. My younger brother moved out from parents’ home. My uncle died. I’m becoming more mature. My parents are getting older. Our everyday image-based communication achieved an additional meaning when my son was born: I’m creating some kind of a relationship between my father and his grandson – an image-based relationship. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we couldn’t visit Russia for more than a year. The daily 12 o’clock photo ritual suddenly became the primary way of communication. The project started on the 11th of December 2015 and continues to this day.
Olga is a visual artist living and working in Zürich. She was born and grew up in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. She graduated from Rostov State University with a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics. Right after her graduation in 2011, Olga moved to Zürich, following her husband who got a job at Google Switzerland. Since then she became active in the field of photography and has published two books: “A Google Wife” (2017) and “How I tried to convince my husband to have children” (2020).
olgabushkova.com
@misha_olya_bushkovs
Ce qui m’a impressionné au premier abord dans le travail d’Olga Bushkova est la discipline de la démarche qui donne au travail un aspect très radical et déterminé. Quel que soit le moment, l’action ou l’humeur, le réveil sonne, le temps s’arrête, une photo est prise. Comme l’artiste le mentionne elle-même, présenter le travail sous forme restreinte est un défi. Le jury a effectivement regretté ne pas pouvoir se sentir submergé par la montagne d’images réalisées au fil des ans. Une présentation de la totalité des images rendrait justice à la temporalité singulière du projet ainsi qu’à la pertinence du travail dans une époque où certaines de nos relations sont forcées d’exister et d’évoluer dans un espace immatériel.
My phone alarm rings every day at 12 o’clock (Moscow time). It’s time to take a photo and send it to my father through WhatsApp. At the same moment, my father also takes a picture and sends it to me. We’re doing this for more than five years. Ten years ago I moved to Zurich, 3 000 km away from my parents who live in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. It became a task to arrange communication with my parents. I can’t really talk to my father by phone – we start to argue real quick (over advice, over politics, over my brother). In 2016, my father and I got an idea to do a photo at the same time – 12 o’clock – and send it to each other through WhatsApp. Every day, same time. Looking back at all the photos we’ve taken and shared, I see an image of modern digital communication between a father and a daughter, between two close, but separate people living in different worlds and trying to communicate through simple direct images, because other communication means hard work. A lot of big and small events happened to both of us since we started. I got a child. My younger brother moved out from parents’ home. My uncle died. I’m becoming more mature. My parents are getting older. Our everyday image-based communication achieved an additional meaning when my son was born: I’m creating some kind of a relationship between my father and his grandson – an image-based relationship. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we couldn’t visit Russia for more than a year. The daily 12 o’clock photo ritual suddenly became the primary way of communication. The project started on the 11th of December 2015 and continues to this day.
Olga is a visual artist living and working in Zürich. She was born and grew up in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. She graduated from Rostov State University with a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics. Right after her graduation in 2011, Olga moved to Zürich, following her husband who got a job at Google Switzerland. Since then she became active in the field of photography and has published two books: “A Google Wife” (2017) and “How I tried to convince my husband to have children” (2020).
olgabushkova.com
@misha_olya_bushkovs
Ce qui m’a impressionné au premier abord dans le travail d’Olga Bushkova est la discipline de la démarche qui donne au travail un aspect très radical et déterminé. Quel que soit le moment, l’action ou l’humeur, le réveil sonne, le temps s’arrête, une photo est prise. Comme l’artiste le mentionne elle-même, présenter le travail sous forme restreinte est un défi. Le jury a effectivement regretté ne pas pouvoir se sentir submergé par la montagne d’images réalisées au fil des ans. Une présentation de la totalité des images rendrait justice à la temporalité singulière du projet ainsi qu’à la pertinence du travail dans une époque où certaines de nos relations sont forcées d’exister et d’évoluer dans un espace immatériel.