Introduction
The series is composed of a selection of vernacular photographs Maria Kapajeva found on the Internet and digitally manipulated afterwards. The familiarity of the interiors, reminiscent of the flats she grew up in or visited in post-Soviet territories, captured Kapajeva’s attention. Yet, at the same time, the poses in which women were photographed were influenced by another culture – Western mass media’s portrayal of female sexuality, which hugely influenced the stereotypes of how women should be represented by the male gaze in post-Soviet territories starting from the 1990s. This series marked one of Kapajeva’s initial explorations into the visual collision or coexistence of post-Soviet and Western cultures, with a focus on women’s representation.