Aunties

• Prize
• Photographer
  Nadia Sablin was born in the Soviet Union and spent her adolescence in the American Midwest. After receiving an MFA from ASU, she now divides her time between Brooklyn, NY and Saint Petersburg, Russia, United States

Aunties is a series of photographs detailing the lives of two unmarried sisters living in a Russian village. Alevtina and Ludmila are in their seventies, but carry on the traditional way of life, chopping wood for heating the house, bringing water from the well and making their own clothes. Vegetables they harvest in the fall and berries they gather in the summer supplement the meager pensions on which the elderly subsist in Russia. My photographs of them are a meditation on aging, family and a sense of belonging. The house in which the sisters live was built by their father, the rugs woven by their mother. They contribute to the home as well, with new wallpapers, hand-sewn curtains, quilts and lace. Folded handwritten recipes contain seeds for planting, or rolled up balls of stray hair. Their environment is as much a character as they are themselves.

Awards Grants and Awards
2013 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Photography
2013 Firecracker Photographic Grant
2013 Daylight Photo Awards, Juror’s Pick
2013 Cord Prize for Contemporary Art Photography, third place
2013 Artist in Residence, The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia, PA
2012 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Photography Portfolio Competition
2012 Photo Lucida Critical Mass Top 50 Award
2012 Puffin Foundation Grant
2011 Joyce Elaine Grant Photography Exhibition, first place
2011 Magenta Foundation Flash Forward Emerging Photographer
2011 Society of Photographic Education Award for Innovations in Imaging

Solo Exhibitions
2013 Aunties, Bellevue College, Bellevue, WA
2013 Two Sisters, Texas Woman’s University School of Art, Denton TX
2012 Holding On, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2012 Growing Up Jewish in Russia, Sylvia Plotkin Museum, Phoenix, AZ
2011 Together and Alone, Art Intersection, Gilbert, AZ

Press and Publications
Slate Magazine, Behold, January 2014
Matter Magazine, England, 2013
Tijdschrift Ei Magazine, Netherlands, November 2013
WPO The Magazine, October, 2013
New York Times, The Culture at Large, September 2, 2013
The Guardian, Sean O’Hagan on Photography, September 2, 2013
The Other Hundred book project, 2013
Vignette Magazine, England, 2013
Light Architect magazine, 2013
6Mois magazine, France, 2013
Framed Magazine, Australia, 2013
LightLeaked, US, 2013
Romka Magazine, Germany, November 2012
Blow Photo, Ireland, October 2012
Incandescent Magazine, US, October 2012
Burn Magazine, October 2012
Verve Photo, October 2012

Selected Group Exhibitions
2013 La Lumière Fantastique, Sheila Riggs and Leidy galleries, MICA, Baltimore, MD
2013 4th Annual Exhibition, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, PA
2013 Photolucida Critical Mass exhibit, Southeast Museum of Photography, FL
2013 Photolucida Critical Mass exhibit, Jennifer Schwartz Gallery, Atlanta GA
2012 Portfolio Prize Exhibit, Philadelphia Art Museum, PA
2012 You are my Mirror, Ariadne Gallery, Athens Photo Festival, Greece
2012 DIY: Photographers and Books, Cleveland Museum of Art, OH
2012 Brittany Summer Residency Exhibit, Léhon, France
2012 Photography 12, Modified Arts, Phoenix, AZ
2012 JEG Exhibition 2012, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX
2011 Urban Views Rural Sights, MPLS Photo Center, Minneapolis, MN
2010 The 16 Juried Exhibition, Griffin Museum, Winchester, MA
2010 An Equation of the Fanciful and Bizarre, Northlight Gallery, Tempe AZ
2009 Phoenix Transect, Northlight Gallery, Tempe, AZ
2009 Crossings 2009, Harwood Center, Albuquerque, NM
2009 Onward 2009, Project Basho, Philadelphia, PA
2008 Potluck Slideshow XI, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY
2008 Circling the Globe through Women’s Lives, Mills House Gallery, St. James, NY
2008 Slide Slam, Real Art Ways Gallery, Hartford, CT
2008 Sixth Annual Juried Exhibition, Organization of Independent Artists, NYC
2008 New Directions, Wall Space Seattle, Seattle, WA
2007-2008 Diversity of Devotion Traveling Group Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY
2007 Annual National Juried Photo Competition, SOHO Photo, New York, NY
2007 Small Works Show, B.A.G. Gallery, Brooklyn NY
2006 Hey Hot Shot Fall Exhibition, jen bekman Gallery, New York NY
2006 Juried Photography Show, Ellipse Gallery, Arlington, VA