'Native Tales' is a view of Russian history through the images contained in the United States Library of Congress. I use these images to analyze the mechanics of propaganda and to delve deeper into the agenda it serves.

Living abroad for a number of years, I became particularly aware of the paradoxical coexistence of opposing points of view. I am intrigued that these photographs belong to the U.S. public, yet what they display is intimate to me, a born and raised Muscovite. My connection to the depicted subjects gives me a sense of immediate perception of the images. The foreign perspective and the selectivity of the narrative in this collection make conversations about propaganda and myth irresistible.

'Native Tales' reveals the narrative manipulations practiced by the media by decontextualizing the images, cropping them, and adding artificial noise. Rooted in the Picture Generation, I created a digital appropriation of historic photographs to pivot awareness towards the optic. The purpose of these visual disturbances is a double play with the viewer, in which the photographs are at first mechanically perceived as a sequence of unrelated platitudes, then, with the help of the noise, a schizophrenic doubt is posed about the reality of those memories.