John Peter Askew, Woman In Bed, Winter 1998

With an essay by Anna Kligman

A photograph is mined from where the camera’s gaze is directed. John photographs appear like jewels dug from the substrata of life. By directing his lens towards things we often overlook because we are distracted by our everyday worries, thoughts and desires, John photographs help us to see what has gone unnoticed. He returns me to the ‘now’ and reminds me there is something valuable in every moment.

I was surprised that John does not lay out his photographs in chronological order. He photographed Russia and our family for many years, but neither their content nor  arrangement focuses our attention on the linearity of time. Instead John directs our attention to what fills our lives. His photographs capture emotions, feelings, sensations. Sadness, joy, admiration, happiness, regret, anticipation, hope, warmth, embarrassment, love ... yes,  we do not even realize the whole range of feelings that we experience in life! And like the slow motion of a blossoming flower, John takes our life, trying to show not a single moment, but a combination of different feelings, thereby creating a three-dimensional perception of life, its holistic image. Moreover, the question of time, although it is not prioritised in the first place, paradoxically reveals itself more clearly. For time fills our lives as inexplicably and inexorably as feeling.

Two Red Apples 1996

I treasure the photograph where Lyuba (my sister) is lying with our grandmother under a blanket. Lyuba has a soft and warm shawl. She is thoughtful, her gaze is fixed somewhere in the future. My grandmother in a red scarf with her kind face. An intense, warm photograph that radiates love. And then, on the next page, John places a photograph of two red apples. From such analogies I get a tremulous feeling inside. For this, I hold dear what John does. I don’t know whether he does it on purpose or just feels it but from it I find meaning.

In the modern world there are various theories about time. There is one proposal that in one moment everything: the past, the present, the future happens simultaneously. John’s book perfectly demonstrates this theory - it is magical to open the pages and live through such sensations, something beyond my consciousness. And yet here I glimpse it in the corner of my eye.

I am happy that my life is in the lens of John. His photographs make me think about what has value throughout my life; what remains unchanged, what truly fills my life and what ultimately inspires me to live.

Anna Kligman (neé Chulakova)

Anna Kligman (neé Chulakova) is a member of the Chulakov family., who has lived in the city of Perm in Russia throughout her life. She has provided her own testimony about the genesis of of We over three decades of her life. This Picture of the Week is taken from the current Pushkin House exhibition, ‘We. Photographs from Russia 1996-2017’ by John Peter Askew.