We are excited to share that the winner of the Genesis Imaging FORMAT24 Portfolio Review Award is Antonina Mamzenko, whose work truly stood out to us among many exceptional submissions.
As part of this award, Antonina will receive £100 credit for photographic or fine art printing/finishing services at Genesis, as well as 1:1 mentoring with our Creative Director, Mark Foxwell.
Genesis was delighted to speak with Antonina about her artistry and her aspirations for how the bursary will support her future projects:
Could you tell us more about your recent work and the themes you explore?
My work is focused on documentation of the lived human experience, exploring the interconnected themes of identity and belonging; trauma and recovery; and the human connection with nature.
I have recently published my first zine, (un)masking, which is an exploration of my own late-discovered neurodivergence and the concept of ‘masking’ – a survival strategy used by people on the autism spectrum to blend into a world designed for – and by – neurotypical people. In (un)masking I pair my childhood photographs with words to explore the duality of my existence on the spectrum – the person I thought I was and the person I now recognise myself to be. This journey is presented as a series of dialogues between photographs and texts, weaving through the past and the present, capturing the unique intricacies of the female autistic experience discovered late in life.
My first book, Beauty Hunting, is being published in a limited edition later this year after a successful Kickstarter campaign. Beauty Hunting is an introspective body of work, exploring themes of isolation, emotional trauma and dealing with addiction within the family. Created over the course of 24 months in response to personal trauma and a breakdown of a long-term relationship, this body of work is inspired – and is led by – the daily practice of mindfulness and meditation.
I also currently have two other ongoing projects that I’m still working on, Bodies of Water which focuses on plus-sized and fat swimmers and aims to challenge societal norms and expectations surrounding body size, and Everything Was Forever (Until It Ended), an Arts Council England funded project that traces my family’s history in the Imperial and Soviet Russia, and asks questions about how inherited generational trauma and forgetting of one’s past shapes who we are.
How has your artistic journey evolved over time, and what inspires you most in your creative process?
My artistic journey is the sum of my lived experiences, and has developed organically over time. Although I have always been creative as a child, I didn’t pursue a creative career to begin with, and studied law, putting any creative pursuits to the side. A legal career didn’t quite suit me and later on I spent over a decade honing my creative and photographic skills by running a business photographing families and weddings.
I started working on personal photographic projects about 5 years ago, when I felt I had something to say and knew how to articulate it – more or less. I cannot separate my creative process from my life so all my past and present experiences play part in it.
What inspires me the most are people and their stories. I’m also very curious and prone to deep dives into a topic, reading everything I can get my hands on so I can understand it better, so, in many cases non-fiction books and autobiographies have sparked ideas for me. At my core I’m a documentarian, so I don’t like to make things up or set things up but when I see it, when I speak to people, when I work with archives, I know how to take that and tell a compelling story with what’s already there.
How do you plan to make use of the bursary and mentorship to further your artistic practice? Are there any specific projects or goals you are excited about pursuing?
I’m very excited to work with Genesis and learn more about the printing process, as well as being able to print on various materials. I’m new to producing my work for exhibitions so having expert advice on hand will be invaluable. After the studio visit with Mark I’m already buzzing with ideas!
I’m hoping to start showing my ongoing project Bodies of Water in the near future, both in indoor and outdoor venues, so this will be my first priority in terms of utilising the bursary and the mentorship.
What do you hope audiences take away from your work, and are there any messages or ideas you strive to communicate?
A lot of the themes I explore are deeply personal, or inspired by lived experiences of myself and others, but they are also universal at the same time. When people interact with my work I hope they can learn something new – about themselves or the world around them – or consider a new way of looking at things, beyond what they thought they knew.
You can find more of Antonina’s work on her:
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