A series of photographs by Mariya Tatarnikova “Stages of Acceptance” is about the phenomenon of grief through the prism of the psychological model by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

Photographer and designer Mariya Tatarnikova graduated from the University of the Arts London (UAL) with a bachelor’s degree in fashion photography. In 2022 Mariya created a body of work “Stages of Acceptance” as a reflection on her own experience of loss.

The photographs capture the head of the artist Ekaterina Veselovskaya, whose face and hair are covered in thick strokes of paint. Each picture corresponds to a certain stage of grief experience according to the classification proposed by the American psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in 1969. In the images by Maria Tatarnikova, the stages acquire a human face and specific color characteristics. “Denial”, “anger”, “bargaining”, “depression” and “acceptance” replace each other and line up in a single horizontal line, designating grief as a process stretched out over time. However, stylistically, each shot is remarkably similar to the others, which indicates the impossibility of drawing clear boundaries between the stages.

It is precisely the impossibility of applying the Kübler-Ross model as an axiom that provides space for the implementation of such deeply personal projects as Stages of Acceptance. The common classification of the stages of grief can be related to one’s own experience of mourning. As a result, we are faced with the fact that despite the already existing description of the phenomenon of grief, each case of grief and subsequent reflection is individual. The stages may occur at different times and in a different order (or not at all). The only indisputable aspect of the Kübler-Ross model is that mourning sooner or later recedes.

“I hope that my photos would help somebody to realize that even the darkest times will not last forever”, — says the artist about the series.

As for the visual aesthetic of the series, it is worth mentioning the author’s undoubted appeal to the painting of the 16th-17th centuries of the vanitas genre, with an impenetrable dark background and a human skull in the center of the composition.

The medium of photography and the expressive overlay of colours on the face of the model also triggers associations with video performances by the French artist Olivier de Sagazan.

“I think of ordinary people who, due to martial law, now face death every day. How is it possible to survive it?” — the artist says.

Today, when political events make us all face the subject of death, the Stages of Acceptance series has begun to be perceived differently. From April 4 to April 30, 2022, a series of photographs is exhibited at the international online exhibition “NO WORDS”.

Application of the deficient Kübler-Ross model as the project`s conceptual framework does not change the relevance of the series. Furthermore, it develops the longtime discourse on the expression of the abstract concept of grief in real emotions and bodily sensations.