We had the opportunity to talk to Evgeniya Tsoy about her series, The Journey to the Edge of Eternity, currently on view in our 2024 Vision(ary) exhibition. The work explores the region of Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. An interview with the artist follows.
Follow Evgeniya on Instagram: @tsoy_photo_
Evgeniya Tsoy (Евгения Цой) is an art photographer who lives in Russia in the city of Kazan. She was born in 1983. She graduated from the Institute of Chemical Technology in 2007 and worked as an engineer. Since 2012, she has been engaged in photography, and since 2022, she had been studying art photography and contemporary art. She has participated in more than 10 Russian an foreign exhibitions.
The Journey to the Edge of Eternity
Kamchatka is a place of incredible beauty and energy. Here, time seems to have stopped and frozen between thousand-year-old volcanoes and the ocean, wrapped in fogs that plunge you into oblivion. It is a checkpoint on the edge of eternity—an interworld in which it is easy to get confused and, in the dissipated fog, to see this world in a new way.
Reality is nothing more than the perception of this world by our consciousness. In my series, I seek the gap between how we are used to seeing the reality around us and what else it could be. By reassembling individual elements of the overall picture of reality into a new plot, I create a different metaphysical space or object. This approach allows me and the viewer to detach from the usual visual clichés and try to see something from a new angle.
Evgeniya, your series The Journey to the Edge of Eternity explores the mystical aspects of The Kamchatka Peninsula in Far Eastern Russia. What drew you initially to this place?
Kamchatka with its unique and pristine nature has long attracted me. This remote peninsula at the edge of Russia has always seemed to me a special place. The first thing that struck me when I first visited Kamchatka was its grandiose and unspoiled landscape. Volcanoes, hot springs, vast snow-covered expanses – all this creates a feeling that you have ended up on another planet. Time seems to stand still here, and human presence is almost imperceptible. But in addition to this, Kamchatka also has a deep cultural and historical subtext. For me, Kamchatka is not just a picturesque landscape, but a place where ancient cosmogonic ideas and modernity intertwine, where man tries to find his place in this powerful natural world. The process of creating this series for me is a kind of spiritual journey, a meditation on the relationship between man and nature.
The title is so poetic. What is the inspiration behind it?
The parking sign in the middle of the volcanoes became the key in choosing the title. There, the fog suddenly descended and a state of timelessness appeared, as if you found yourself in the eternity of the thousand-year-old valleys and volcanoes. This sign looked very strange, inorganic, but at the same time very metaphorically stopped you right there, in that place.
Human constructions amidst deserted landscapes are a recurrent motif in your project. It really sets up quite an intriguing, almost dystopian/sci-fiesque tone for the series. What do you look for when choosing things and places to photograph in the context of this work?
I am interested in places where human presence is felt, but humanity itself is absent. This creates a sense of abandonment, of a disrupted balance. I like this contrast between the artificial and the natural, between civilization and the pristine environment, which really gives an dystopian undertone. This is an intentional artistic device that I use to prompt the viewer to reflect on the place of man in this world, on the balance between technology/progress and nature. In the series there is one work with a person, it is necessary for the person to enter this space, as a wanderer and a participant in the events.
You mention creating a “different metaphysical space” in your work. Could you elaborate on how you achieve this in your photography?
When I talk about creating a “metaphysical space”, I mean that I am trying to go beyond the usual documentation of the landscape and form a sense of an alternative reality in the viewer. This space is familiar to us, but at the same time alien to our everyday life. And this is primarily a choice of locations, I am looking for places where human presence is combined with a pristine, almost alien environment. In many shots from the series, there is also fog, which helps to create this otherness of the space.
Can you describe a memorable experience or moment while developing this work that significantly shaped the course of the project?
At the very beginning of the trip, I found myself on the shore of the Pacific Ocean during a thick fog, there was a sense of timelessness, as if it had stopped here. Playground, campsites, objects on the beach and other traces of human presence – all of a sudden it all looked completely different. And the Pacific Ocean at the same time calmed with its monotonous sound of waves and stirred with its power and might. That state and feeling from that place became the leitmotif of the whole trip and left an imprint on the frames taken there.
Kamchatka is known for it seismic activity and volcanic eruptions, how do you adapt your photographic techniques or practice to such unpredictable environment?
During my trip, there were no eruptions or any strong seismic activity. I try to find a balance between a documentary approach and a more contemplative, artistic vision. It is important for me not just to record events, but to convey the sense of primordial power and beauty of these places.
Is there something about his place you think people should know or that you’d like to seize the opportunity to share?
Yes, I would like to show the peculiarity of this region. Volcanoes cannot leave anyone indifferent. And nature itself is also very diverse here, it’s like a laboratory for creating our planet. Immutable beauty, through which you seem to touch eternity. In the interweaving of different elements in this place, an extraordinary energy is felt. The power and might of the ocean, the grandeur of the volcanoes, the centuries-old beauty, in the midst of which we are even less than a grain of volcanic sand. And also the rich cultural heritage of the indigenous peoples of Kamchatka – Itelmens, Koryaks, Evens and other ethnic groups. Their ancient traditions, beliefs and shamanic practices, closely connected with nature, are of great interest and value. I would like to find myself there again and pay more attention to this.
