June 1 – June 30, 2025
The Griffin Museum of Photography is pleased to present an online exhibition featuring photographs by Russian artist Yulia Spiridonova. Her project, Unseen Presence: Homeland Hues documents the upheaval caused by the Russian military intervention in Ukraine. Her images illuminate the challenges and resilience of Russian expatriates in the midst of international conflict by photographing the Russian diaspora in Boston.
Unseen Presence: Homeland Hues
When Russia announced the beginning of its “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine—a euphemism the government uses for war—any opposition to the aggression became a punishable offense. Most of my friends and I felt we had no choice but to leave the country as a sign of protest. Our communities were uprooted and scattered across different continents, countries, cities, and time zones. Many of us have lost our jobs, and our lives revolve around problems with visas, passports, work permits, and financial instability.
We live in a perpetual state of insecurity, but are unwilling to return home out of fear of being drafted into the army, or jailed for our artwork or comments on social media. In the extensive history of repression, dating back to the philosophers’ ships which transported expelled intellectuals in the early days of the USSR, Russian immigrants living in exile have faced the ongoing challenge of performing a constant act to camouflage their identity and remain invisible.
Feeling alienated under these precarious living conditions, I am rebuilding my community by photographing members of the current Russian diaspora in Boston. I find them through Telegram chats and occasional events. Since a lot of the people I photograph have legal issues being present in the US, I ask them to collaborate on how much they are willing to reveal their identity. I photograph them in neutral territory—streets, parks, parking lots, or studios—in places that are anonymous and empty.
The events of last year thrust us into a nomadic lifestyle. Without a clear sense of how long we can stay, most of us do not have much with us. We try to blend in by mimicking natives, yet everyone can identify our accent. My work is a visual study of the Russian community—identifiable, present, and opaque at the same time.
©Yulia Spiridonova- ©Yulia Spiridonova
- ©Yulia Spiridonova
- ©Yulia Spiridonova
- ©Yulia Spiridonova
- ©Yulia Spiridonova
- ©Yulia Spiridonova
- ©Yulia Spiridonova
- ©Yulia Spiridonova
About the artist
Yulia Spiridonova is a multimedia lens-based artist, working across photography, collage, and installation. She holds a Post-Baccalaureate certificate and an MFA in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she earned the Abelardo Morell Thesis Prize (2024). She received fellowships from Anderson Ranch (2023) and MASS MoCA Studios (2024). Based in Boston, she currently works as a Teaching Assistant at Harvard’s Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies.
