Tania Shcheglova

Lives and works in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine

Artist statement

My artistic practice explores the relationship between inner consciousness and the natural world, investigating how invisible psychological and spiritual structures shape human presence. Through photography, installation, and performative image-making, I seek to articulate what cannot be directly seen - memory, belief, endurance, and inner strength. At the core of my work is Innerland, an ongoing long-term project that I have dedicated my practice to developing. Innerland is an expanding photographic archive of artists worldwide - a portrait series that reveals the inner landscapes of contemporary creatives while bringing visibility to those shaping today’s cultural discourse. Developing an art genre I define as Staged Documentary, I move away from the classical definition of portraiture, merging documentary presence with a constructed visual language. The subjects are neither staged characters nor purely observed figures; instead, they appear as multilayered beings - inseparable from their environment, shaped by it and shaping it in return. Pioneering the concept of Inner World Portraiture, I shift the focus away from physical representation toward the invisible structures of identity - integrity, purpose, resilience, belief. Strength here is not performative; it is internal, quiet, and persistent. Within this framework, portraiture is liberated from the obligation to depict the human figure. The body may disappear; the face may remain unseen. What persists is essence....

Artwork