Anastasia Zharkova (visual) and Zemfira (audio)

Zemfira (left) and Anastasia (right).

Russian art and spirituality are some very captivating and emblematic elements of the global culture, we, however, will not stop at the consecrated names now. Zemfira Ramazanova is a Russian rock artist of Bashkir descent. At the age of four she became interested in music and one year later she was sent to a music school. As time passed she started to become more and more interested in rock music. Apparently she has a powerful personality which often gets her in the news and on the first pages of the tabloids in Russia. This could also be explained by the fact that, as I was led to believe, she was the first female rocker in the country that actually challenged the male dominated podium.



The song 'Skazki' means 'fairy tale' and for lyrics click here, an English translation is to be found here. The album is '14 Nedel Tishini', meaning '14 weeks of silence', from 2002. For her official English site, click here.

Anastasia Zharkova studied industrial design and is interested in photography with some experiments in painting and drawing. You will now meet her as a young and promising photographer, enjoy. The portraits ('Kseniya and Elen) are especially well done in my opinion, the first, slightly contemplative black and white with the model looking somewhere down with her face turned to the left and her eyes not meeting ours. She is neither smiling, nor is she sad, a type of ambiguity that gives an aura of mystery. The second is different and although Anastasia makes evident use of her qualities, the lights, colors, and the position of the model who is looking straight at us,with no inhibitions, slightly upwards with her head tilted to the left showing more of the right side of the face while covering the left with her hair and all this while being rather undressed... well... damn, classic flirting in my opinion (and let's not forget the bed). These two images are excellent together.

Kseniya

Elen

Air

Bathroom (not finished)

Last day of my summer

Moment on the backroad [another great photo]

Picture from the 'Ostuni' series

'Last day of my summer' and 'Moment on the backroad' go hand in hand due to their use of light and color. Also interesting to point out is the fact that one has antennas and the other has a book, it may be accidental but I see a message here. Overall, Anastasia has great talent and I'm looking forward to seeing more works from her. Check her flicker account here.

Till next time, all the best,
Florin