Maria Kapajeva - Call Me Early

Maria Kapajeva

I think her work is so natural, and simple – which is good, it is accessible to everyone. Each project has a pure and personal element to it that fits really well with the calm photographs

I remember she were teaching me advanced darkroom techniques, we used a piece of paper on a thin wire to create a vignette. We exposed the paper with a tiny aperture to get a long exposure. We moved the paper on the wire around in the middle of the paper so only the corners got exposed and so the edges were not thick. We then exposed the whole photograph so the subject became visible. She must have used this technique here, the photographs are stunning and seem silvery on the main subject, on their faces, the surroundings disappear into the darkness.