TED2017
Uldus Bakhtiozina: Portraits that transform people into whatever they want to be
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With her gorgeous, haunting photographs, artist Uldus Bakhtiozina documents dreams, working with daily life as she imagines it could be. She creates everything in her work by hand -- from costumes to stages -- without digital manipulation, bringing us images from the land of escapism, where anyone can become something else.
Uldus Bakhtiozina - Artist, visionary
TED Fellow Uldus Bakhtiozina creates photo stories and video installations that challenge stereotypes and create diversity, involving all types of people from fashion models to ordinary people. She presents the world with humor and thoughtfulness. Full bio
TED Fellow Uldus Bakhtiozina creates photo stories and video installations that challenge stereotypes and create diversity, involving all types of people from fashion models to ordinary people. She presents the world with humor and thoughtfulness. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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I'm often asked
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why I do art,
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what do I want to say
with my art photography,
with my art photography,
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and what is the use of it?
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Once in a while I start to worry
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how to actually measure
the impact from the art
the impact from the art
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like we do with medicine or technology,
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where we can see the results
and calculate it.
and calculate it.
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Then I would finally be able
to explain to my mother my art
to explain to my mother my art
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with real numbers.
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But my art is so far from metrics,
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and moreover, my photography
is widely exposing the theme of escapism.
is widely exposing the theme of escapism.
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My theory is that all of us
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struggle sometimes to escape
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in order to analyze our reality,
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appreciate it or change.
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I don't work with daily life as it is,
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and I'm not a documentary photographer
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in the common sense.
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But I am a documentary photographer
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in a different sense.
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I document dreams.
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I work with daily life as it could be,
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as I imagine it.
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I am a daydreamer, but at the same time
I love things that are authentic
I love things that are authentic
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and deal with our innermost nature,
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which I would never want to escape from.
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I adore complicated personalities,
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and real life inspires me
to create my images.
to create my images.
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Real life inspires our escape,
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and sometimes that escape is very needed.
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I believe heroes are not created easily,
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and I choose to work with individuals
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who are survivors
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and facing everyday routines
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that are not always full of color,
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people who are on their way
to a better life,
to a better life,
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fighting against life circumstances.
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Why do I choose people
like that for my models?
like that for my models?
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Because I've been in that position myself,
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when I had to learn
how to survive in real life.
how to survive in real life.
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I was a student living abroad in London.
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I was working at two places
at the same time as a waitress.
at the same time as a waitress.
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Obviously that wasn't my dream job,
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but I decided to play a game
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where I imagined
that I am taking a role in a film,
that I am taking a role in a film,
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and in the film I am a waitress,
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and I need to act great.
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I used to dye my hair
and brows to gingerette,
and brows to gingerette,
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I changed my hair to curly perm,
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I lost weight
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and made myself believe
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I am just a character acting in a film.
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That isn't forever,
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that is all just temporary.
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That helped me a lot.
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It motivated me to change my life
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and take a hard time as a game.
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Now, as an artist,
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I am creating different
lives for my models
lives for my models
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in order to give them the experience
of being someone else in reality.
of being someone else in reality.
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Through the photographic process,
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all of my models
become like silent movie actors.
become like silent movie actors.
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They are captured at the moment
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when they believe
in being someone else entirely.
in being someone else entirely.
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In order to create
a new reality in its entirety,
a new reality in its entirety,
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I physically create
every single thing in my work,
every single thing in my work,
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sometimes from outfits to the stage.
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Because I work with analogues,
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and I don't make any digital
manipulations to my photographs,
manipulations to my photographs,
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I need everything
to take place in reality,
to take place in reality,
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in spite of the fact that nowadays,
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digitally, you can create
pretty much everything.
pretty much everything.
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I don't like this path.
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Even if that reaches perfection,
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I see the beauty
in authenticity of making,
in authenticity of making,
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and that's impossible without flaws.
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A digitally manipulated photograph
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is not true for me.
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It doesn't capture anything real.
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It's not experienced, not motivating.
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It's like, instead of going traveling,
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you look at someone else's
travel photographs.
travel photographs.
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What I find so exciting
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is the ability to make people's dreams
of being someone else a reality.
of being someone else a reality.
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That's like a drug
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which pushes me to keep working,
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even without metrics.
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One of my models
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had always dreamed
of being seen as a warrior,
of being seen as a warrior,
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but she wasn't able to do sports
because of her health problems.
because of her health problems.
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Half a year ago, she passed away
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from heart disease at the age of 22.
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But two days before her death,
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the images we spent months
working on together
working on together
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of her as a warrior
she dreamed of becoming
she dreamed of becoming
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were published at a large exhibition
in Milan by Vogue Magazine.
in Milan by Vogue Magazine.
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All her life was about overcoming.
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Before she died, she had known
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that thousands of people
saw her image from the land of escapism
saw her image from the land of escapism
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and believed in her
as a brave and fearless warrior.
as a brave and fearless warrior.
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For my work, I invite people
to play a game
to play a game
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like we all used to as children
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when we pretend to be someone else
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and that process made us really happy.
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To my mind it is important for grown-ups.
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We need these transformations
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to enact this in the name of art.
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It gives us the very real feeling
of being important and powerful
of being important and powerful
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in order to influence our reality.
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I know this from
my own personal experience.
my own personal experience.
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I have had so many versions of myself
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through my self-portraits
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that I've been many different characters.
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Being someone else in the land of escapism
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doesn't exactly give us numbers
that we can gauge,
that we can gauge,
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but it's like a real lost form of magic
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which exists but can't be measured.
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There is a unique power in art
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to transform and lift our limits.
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Art creates what I call a conjured life,
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which helps our existence
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and pushes, motivates
and inspires us to dwell
and inspires us to dwell
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and express ourselves
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without metrics or calculations.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Uldus Bakhtiozina - Artist, visionaryTED Fellow Uldus Bakhtiozina creates photo stories and video installations that challenge stereotypes and create diversity, involving all types of people from fashion models to ordinary people. She presents the world with humor and thoughtfulness.
Why you should listen
Uldus Bakhtiozina is an artist and filmmaker who lives and works in Russia. Born in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, into a Muslim-Christian family, Bakhtiozina studied and worked in London in graphic design and photography before settling on her unique style which mixes folklore, history, fashion and challenging stereotypes. Calling her style "Tatar Baroque," in part because she is half Tatar, Bakhtiozina has a passion for irregularity, and she says that her work documents dreams. Bakhtiozina creates everything inside her analogue photography and films, from outfits to stages, to fulfill the story behind each of her creations. None of her works have been digitally manipulated.
Uldus Bakhtiozina | Speaker | TED.com