Kristina Shakht’s experiments with the medium of Polaroids: «It’s blurry, low quality, and dreamy. Colors are always a surprise, mostly a good surprise»
Kristina Shakht shooting for Lampoon: Shifting focus
«The main idea for the shoot was to explore and create. There wasn’t a specific plan for this story; I wanted to improvise and see where it would go. As a photographer, I shoot or create stories about self-identity, isolation, femininity, and sexuality in which I try to incorporate fashion and fine art.
All the post-production I did solely – included collaging, painting and layouts; a lot of my creative process is very spontaneous. I have been experimenting with Polaroids a lot in the past year. They’re blurry and low-quality; colors are always a surprise, mostly a good surprise.
This story was shot on a Polaroid600, and the post-production process included the same amount of creative labor that it took to make the images.
Within this project, I wanted to work with the model’s body, Ana. Last year I shot a lot of regular women and non-models – this story was one of them. Most of my work lately is trying to merge fine art and fashion to create non-objectified imagery about the female form and enhance body plurality.
As a size six myself, I see how designer clothes mostly never fit me because when sizing up, they don’t think you can have wide hips and bust. So the last time I went to find a dress for myself, I had many expectations. Instead, I started having a panic attack and being scared about my image reflected.
Even scrolling Instagram – the dream designer girl is still a skinny teenager. And that is just so unhealthy that I don’t understand how we still fall for that.»
Kristina Shakht
New York-based fashion photographer and creative director. Kristina Shakht was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. The main themes of her work are intimacy, sensuality, self-identity and liberation. Inspired by Slavic fairy tales and mythology, she documents the female form and landscapes. Her approach aims to reframe the negative sexual experiences she lived through as a young woman. Kristina’s focus on non-sexual work with the body shows the female figure from a woman’s perspective, creating a safe space of expression for both her and her subject, and depicting an imaginary new world. Shakht has worked for major independent magazines such as i-D, AnOther, Teeth, Hunger and many others.
Credits
Photography and creative direction: Kristina Shakht
Model: Ana Paula
Editorial Team
