The exhibition Crimea is a visual sequence that reflects on the photographer’s family and the larger Crimean Tatar community experience, finding a Home in the complicated geopolitical environment preceding and following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014.
For Ziyatdinova, the camera and recorder became tools to search for answers: Who am I? Where do I belong? What is Home? They allowed her to uncover the family stories of Crimea’s past and present, which are absent or distorted by lingering Soviet and Russian propagandistic narratives. The great-grandfather, whom the Soviets persecuted for de-facto owning land and using hired labor in Crimea in 1937, before collectivization. The grandparents, who were falsely accused of Nazi collaboration, and were forcefully deported to Central Asia; and the relatives, who did not survive the arduous journey, difficult conditions, and poor treatment. The parents, who had to navigate the Soviet propaganda to regain their identity, and moved back to their homeland in 1990.
The sequence also reflects on Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, when Crimean Tatars as a group once again became a target of political state persecution. The photographs capture the quiet moments of daily life and landscapes in Crimea, with an almost invisible political tension growing through the sequence. The sense of Home is replaced by the feeling of instability and fear, accompanied by the state’s repressive political machinery and propaganda.
The photographs for the project were taken between 2008 and 2016. The video sequence was filmed and produced in 2015–2016.