After winning the 6th Chelsea International Photography Competition, my self-portrait Hello Malevich was featured in a group show at Agora Gallery in New York City in February 2025.

This self-portrait was created during the COVID-19 pandemic and reflects my state of mind at that time. The children’s creative and learning studio I founded had to close, no one wanted to come to my photo studio for family sessions, and all my friends had left New York City. I felt like I was losing my identity and the career I had built my entire life.

In this portrait, I depicted myself holding my mother’s vintage camera, using color and composition as an homage to Kazimir Malevich’s figures. It was my way of saying that even if I felt like I was losing myself, the one thing that had always supported me—art and photography—would help me find my way again and again!