Artist Statement
Anna Chobotova (born in the Republic of Karelia, Russia) is a photographer and visual artist from Moscow.
Exploring the fragility of beauty in the digital age. I work with the aesthetics of light, memory, and decay, from classical portraiture to AI art. My projects are teetering on the edge of perfection and vulnerability: from the timeless beauty of the human image to the digital melancholy of AI generations. The mediums in which I work: photography, collage, artist’s book, neural network, installation.
In 2025, I gave an interview as part of the Leica 100 Years project (the Leica camera brand celebrated its 100th anniversary, Germany). I was included in the list of the 100 best photographers who convey the spirit of the brand according to Leica.
I took part in the “Memory Laboratory” of the artist Yulia Pavlova. In 2024, my Leporello book “The Moth” participated in the NIZIN seedling fair project at the Museum of Moscow, it was included in the collection of the NIZIN library. The collages were selected and participated in the third Russian Nichese Festival (Moscow, ARBUZZ Gallery) of the Russian collage community “Cut and Glue” and a number of collages were selected for the book of the Parisian collage club “Earth day” about ecology.
I have a PhD in Arts and Cultural Management (University of Manchester)
My works are in private collections in Russia and abroad (Finland, France, Germany, China)
Artist Statement
My method is the deconstruction of classical aesthetics with the tools of modernity. I explore how digital uncertainty redefines beauty, turning it into a battleground between the human and the algorithmic. My projects materialize vulnerability through the deformation of digital images — this is a dialogue with fear of the future. Through photography, collage, video, and installations, I create aesthetic shelters— fragile, temporary, but vital. They prove that harmony is possible only as a strategy to resist digital entropy. My role is a position within the process: As an artist who grew up in a tradition, I use its fragments to build new shelters. My art is a flashlight in the dark corners of the psyche, where aesthetics become a shield against decay.
Personal exhibitions
2022
“Walking in Paris”, MBU TO “KUZMOLOVSKAYA DSHI"/Saint Petersburg
2015
“Disappearing Shadows”, Karelian State Philharmonic/Petrozavodsk
2012
“Letters from childhood”, Fotonerds Gallery,/Joensuu, Finland
2011
“In the Land of Angels”, Karelian State Philharmonic/Petrozavodsk “Sensuality”, Gallery “Grain"/ Petrozavodsk
2010
“In the Land of the AnnaKids”, Puppet Theater of the Republic of Karelia/Petrozavodsk
2009
“Moulin Rouge: The Mirror” /Petrozavodsk
Group exhibitions:
2024
the collage exhibition of the Parisian collage club Earth Dance/ Paris
the collage exhibition PHOTOPLAY
'Rezh da Klej' fest “Nichese”, Moscow, ARBUZZ Gallerymuseum of Moscow.
Mobile shelf of zines and photo books of the Nizina project.
Pilot project of Zines and the author’s book “Paper Stories” , Petrozavodsk
2020
“Breaking the Kalevala Codes” Russian Center for Science and Culture, Helsinki +Estonia+Lithuania+ Budapest
2019
“Opening the Kalevala codes”, Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Karelia/ Petrozavodsk
2017
Monocle, a photo exhibition based on the results of the All-Russian photo contest dedicated to the monocle lens/ K. A. Timiryazev Library
2011
“Author-time”, Industrial History Gallery/Petrozavodsk
2010
“The time of the day.OnegaTraktorny LOFT project, Cultural Initiative Center/ Petrozavodsk
Education
2025
Yulia Pavlova Memorial Laboratory
2008-2024
Author’s courses, master classes by leading Russian and foreign photographers (Studio Harcourt (Paris), Magnum Photos, Mark Fearnley (London), Leica Akademie: Alan Schaller, Alexander Medvedev, Andrey Chezhin, Igor Sakharov.
2006-2007
Academy of International Cooperation, international diploma with a degree in photography
2004 -2005
The University of Manchester, PHD in Cultural Management
1996-2001
Karelian State University Pedagogical University, Faculty of Foreign Languages (Finnish, English)
Exhibition posters
