our good friend jenya

c. jenya arbugaeva

as a friend i should know how to pronounce jenya's last name but i do not, never tried in 2 1/2 years, so with that, feel free to call me syrah bajor. jenya's photos, when i first saw them in class, rendered me immediately silent and made my stomach go hot. i have no words that couldn't be confused with envy when describing her work, and rightly so. gracious, elegant, and polished, she gets down in her familiar siberian tundra, one under which i'd most likely crack. she dons what she dons and carries what she carries, slight and strong, tearing new holes into the photographic cosmos. her sensibility, i think, and her beauty and strength, i think, is what renders me silent. her portraits are kind, and there is no irony. now and again (always) this is nice to feel. she is all over the internet these days. she deserves it. her shit is otherworldly, and i say that from the pov of a rather provincial western existence. otherworldly is actually quite close, as she has shown. website: jenya