Portraits that transform people into whatever they want to be | Uldus Bakhtiozina

TL;DR

Uldus Bakhtiozina creates art photography to turn imagined identities into real experiences that can motivate people to influence their lives. She physically makes everything from outfits to stages, uses analog processes without digital manipulation, and photographs models when they believe they have become someone else. Her portraits document dreams rather than ordinary life, showing why escapism, authenticity, and transformation matter beyond measurable results. Read on to discover how one warrior portrait gave this purpose profound meaning.

Transcript

I'm often asked why I do art, what do I want to say with my art photography, and what is the use of it? Once in a while I start to worry how to actually measure the impact from the art like we do with medicine or technology, where we can see the results and calculate it. Then I would finally be able to explain to my mother my art with real numbers.... Read More

Key Insights

• 🎨 Art photography is a form of escapism that allows us to analyze, appreciate, or change our reality.
• 📸 The photographer documents dreams and works with daily life as it could be, imagining different lives for her models.
• 💭 The process of becoming someone else through art can be transformative and empowering, allowing us to influence our reality.
• 🌟 Authenticity is important in art, as digitally manipulated photographs lack the realness and motivation of experiencing something firsthand.
• 🎭 Art has the power to make people's dreams a reality, creating a sense of importance and power that can influence our lives.
• 💔 The impact of art cannot always be measured in numbers, but it has the ability to transform and lift our limits.
• 🎉 Playing pretend and taking on different roles, like we did as children, is important for adults too, as it allows us to experience the magic of art.
• 🌌 Art creates a conjured life, pushing, motivating, inspiring, and helping us express ourselves without relying on metrics or calculations.

Questions & Answers

Q: Why does Uldus Bakhtiozina create portraits that transform people into someone else?

Bakhtiozina wants to make people’s dreams of being someone else real through the photographic process. She believes these transformations can give adults a genuine feeling of importance and power, helping them influence their reality.

Q: What does Uldus Bakhtiozina mean when she says she documents dreams?

She does not photograph daily life exactly as it is. Instead, she works with life as it could be, creating imagined identities and realities inspired by authentic personalities and real circumstances.

Q: How does escapism function in Uldus Bakhtiozina’s photography?

She sees escapism as a way to analyze, appreciate, or change reality. Her models temporarily become different characters, and she presents that experience as a form of transformation that can push, motivate, and inspire people.

Q: Why does Uldus Bakhtiozina work with survivors as her models?

She chooses people who are fighting difficult circumstances and moving toward a better life because she has experienced that struggle herself. While studying abroad in London, she worked at two places as a waitress and used imaginative role-playing to endure the hardship.

Q: How did pretending to be a character help Uldus Bakhtiozina change her own life?

While working as a waitress, she imagined she was acting that role in a film and reminded herself that the situation was temporary. She changed her hair, brows, hairstyle, and weight to inhabit the character, turning a hard period into a game that motivated her to change her life.

Q: How does Uldus Bakhtiozina create the realities shown in her portraits?

She physically creates every element needed for the image, sometimes including both the outfits and the stage. During the shoot, her models become like silent movie actors and are photographed when they believe they are someone else entirely.

Q: Why does Uldus Bakhtiozina avoid digital manipulation?

She works with analog processes and requires the scene to exist in reality. She values the flaws involved in authentic making and says a digitally manipulated photograph does not capture a real, experienced moment for her.

Q: What happened to the model who dreamed of being portrayed as a warrior?

The model could not participate in sports because of health problems, but Bakhtiozina spent months creating images of her as the warrior she wanted to be. Two days before the model died from heart disease at age 22, the portraits appeared in a large Milan exhibition by Vogue Magazine, and she knew thousands of people had seen her as brave and fearless.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The artist discusses the purpose and impact of her art photography, highlighting its focus on escapism and the documentation of dreams.

• She explains her personal motivation for creating, drawing from her experience of using imagination and role-playing to overcome challenges in her own life.

• The artist emphasizes her commitment to authenticity and the physical creation of her images, rejecting digital manipulation in favor of capturing real experiences and emotions.