Photographic Salon
with Mary Gelman (RU)
Mary Gelman is a documentary photographer and sociologist from St. Petersburg. She has won numerous competitions, including the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Istanbul Photo Award, 2nd place at the Andrei Stenin International Photo Contest and the Artist-in-Residence Award at the Portrait – HELLERAU Photography Award 2019.
During her residence in HELLERAU – European Centre of the Arts Mary Gelman is working on a new project “Acts of Acceptance of the Body”, for which she has taken photos of women, couples and families in Moscow and St. Petersburg who are discriminated against because of their weight by different structures and groups in Russia.
In return, she has recorded very personal conversations with various women, showing Mary Gelman activities that have helped them feel harmony with their bodies and break out of the cycle of shame felt for their bodies.
