The series is rooted in my personal experience of early emigration and explores the state of growing up between two spaces: the place where one no longer lives, and the place that never fully becomes home. The past is reduced to a photograph, a fragment, a model, an inner image. The images form a loop: the house appears inside another image, returns as a photograph, a model, and a fragment, becoming a trace of the past. Roots speaks of an attempt to reassemble the self and find belonging not in the ground, but within.
Olesja Brandt was born in 1978 in Omsk, Russia. She lives and works in Germany. She became involved in photography in 2023 and has since been actively developing her artistic practice. Her work has been presented in international group exhibitions, including at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Florida, USA (2026); The Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Glasgow, Scotland (2026); an exhibition held as part of Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France (2026); LENSCRATCH — Fine Art Photography, USA (2026); Decagon Gallery, USA (2026); Blue Sky Gallery, USA (2026); and Gallery Carlotta, UK.
