ANTONINA ZHARKO                 

Antonina, born and raised in Siberia, is a photographer with 17 years of experience in fine art, portrait, documentary, and fashion photography. She accomplished her photography degree with distinction in the Department of Journalism and Social Communications in Ireland and had been living and working in New York, and the United Kingdom before she settled in Tanzania. She now works on her personal projects in East Africa.

Antonina's sense of light, shade, tonality, and colour had come from the classic darkroom techniques, with which she grew up as a photographer and an artist. Her knowledge of old-school photographic processes has enabled her to produce high-quality work both in terms of light and colour and in terms of the unique vision she has for every project she works for. She shoots with analog camera and works on processing her films herself, which enables her to control colors and tones of the 

images.

ARTIST STATEMENT of the project called ‘Etude de Femme’

I’m a Tanzania-based photographer with 17 years of experience, and with a background in fine art and fashion photography. I create works inspired by paintings and cinematography.
This particular body of work represents a series of portraits, where the subjects are entirelystaged, dressed and made up. All the portraits las emotion and most are even absent of it. Iportrayed the women in a way that they lack their feminine side and in their blank form –
like dolls with no emotion. I wanted to create memorable characters, frozen in time and space, and without the past, future or present. All the characters hang in space like the ghosts of some real people.
The color portraits prevail over the black and white because color plays a big role in this body of work, making the images vibrant and adding cinematic feel to the portraits. In spite of their lack of emotions, the portraits are able to generate deep feelings, and are intended to bring attention of the viewer to the inner world of the characters.

EDUCATION 

BA in Photographic media 2011 – 2015

Books commissions: 

Tina Karol, "Odnim Kadrom", 2017

Published editorials for: Harper's Bazaar UA, Harper's Bazaar RU, Vogue UA, 

L'Officiel UA, Numero, Offi ce Magazine NY, Elle, King Kong Magazine UK, Puss Puss 

Magazine UK, Blueprint, Irish Times, Esquire, Interview.

Worked for model agencies: Elite Paris, Avant, Red Models NY, IMG Models 

Worldwide, Muse Model Management, Ford Models, Lion Models, Women Models, 

Lions Models, Premier Models UK, Next Model Management.

2024:  Circle Foundation / Agora Gallery, Chelsea, New York: Honorable mention for 

participation in the contest for the October 2024 exhibition at Agora Gallery.

2024:  The Chateau Gallery, Louisville, j     oint exhibition: "The Portrait". Honorable 

mention.

Exhibitions 

2024:  Boomer Gallery, London, joint exhibition: "The New Artist".

2024 : Art Square Gallery, New York, joint exhibition: "Art Square at Times Square".

2017:  TedX, Dublin, joint exhibition: "Uncommon Beauty"

2016:  International PhotoVogue Festival, Milan, joint exhibition.

2017:  Leica Gallery, Milan, joint exhibition: "PhotoVogue/In portraits".

2014:  Carlisle Photo Festival, UK, joint exhibition: "Making Waives".​

2014 : Canon Award Winner.

2012 : Inspirational Arts Gallery, Dublin, joint exhibition.

2012:  Smedias Awards, Dublin, Photographer of The Year Award.

WORKS [ Selection ]

All the works can be purchased here