Searching for Self in a Stolen Life

A photo project about identity, loss, and the invisible line between reality and image

This project began as a story about searching for oneself in emigration — in a new life where everything feels uncertain: language, home, the future. Mixed lighting and intentional blur became visual metaphors for inner confusion, the loss of grounding, and the struggle to hold onto one’s identity in a world that still feels unfamiliar.

But reality took the concept further: my apartment was robbed, and all equipment, archives, and original photographs were stolen. Only the preview images — sent to the model and my co-creator — survived. These fragments are all that remain.

Thus, “Searching for Self” became “a stolen shoot about a stolen life” — a symbolic chronicle of vulnerability that turned out to be more honest than originally intended.

Wardrobe Stylist/Female Model: Nataliya Bugaychuk @nataliya_bugaychuk

Photographer: Lena Berkas @lenaberkas

Makeup Artist: Olga Slobodianyk @Olga Vidanova @vidanova_makeup