Entry Title: " W"
Name: Jana Romanova, Russian Federation
Category: Professional, Self-Portrait


Entry Description: “W” – a letter from the alphabet, a sign, a symbol, signifying something, even when we pronounce “W” – we say “double you”, it sounds like “twice you”, your twin, even “the repetition of you.”
Exploring the question of what is beauty and femininity in the modern society, in this series of self-portraits I copy poses of different girls, whose appearance and self-confidence I consider to be different from mine, trying to understand if it’s really possible to feel “feminine” while trying to make exact copy of other woman’s movement.

I’m a documentary photographer, mostly interested in self-identity theme and everything connected to self-presentation and roles people play in society. I was born in 1984 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, and still live here, but travel quite a lot. I graduated from Saint-Petersburg State University as a specialist in journalism, although I spent most of my time there publishing a music zine with my course mates and taking pictures. I’ve been working as a professional photographer since 2009, now I cooperate with Russian Reporter magazine and agency Anzenberger (Austria). I had several exhibitions, three times as a winner of “Young Russian Photography” project by the Fotodepartament Foundation (Saint-Petersburg) and once as a participant of “Fashion and Style in Photography Festival” in Moscow with exhibition of “Waiting”. In 2011 the same “Waiting” project was selected for the PDN Photo Annual issue, and also I was a finalist of the Vilnius Photo Circle Festival 2010 and second prize winner in “Young Man in 21st century” competition in Kaunas