Alexey Alexeev's project, "Mirrorland", tells of people who at first glance may seem very ordinary. They go to work, raise children, and on weekends do something fulfilling. Yet, looking more closely, you can see very different, parallel worlds to which they belong. And the more closely we examine these worlds, the more "curiosier and curiosier" they become: the characters of "Mirrorland", echoing Lewis Carroll's characters, live according to their own rules and laws, sometimes logical, sometimes absurd, but always outside the boundaries of time and prejudice, which are inherent in our daily reality.
The project was completed using the ambrotype technique, which is a type of wet-plate collodion process, invented in England in the middle of the 19th century. This is the photo process that was actually used by Carroll himself, who was a big fan of photography. A glass plate, particles of pure silver and a varnish with the aroma of lavender oil: these are the main components of ambrotype, the eternal photograph.
The peculiarity of ambrotype is that the entire process of obtaining an image must take no longer than ten minutes. On the one hand, such impetuosity requires that the photographer be absolutely exact in each and every manipulation, but on the other hand, it also requires thoughtful preparation of the shot. All this together turns the photo shoot into a theatrical play, in which the photographer and the model take turns in the roles of actor and audience. The result of their interaction is not always predictable, but it certainly is unusual and a little bit crazy. After all, as the Cheshire Cat said, "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
Mirrorland
