Diana Markosian is an American and Russian visual artist who uses both film and photography to portray her roots. Her series ‘Inventing My Father’ and ‘Mornings (With You)’ depicts her relationship with her father after not seeing him on almost 20 years after moving away when she was 7. The series also includes text about her relationship with him, focussing on the awkward tension between them as they both view each other as strangers.

I feel inspired by her images due to how they’re clearly laced with personal and emotional aspects. The amount of time that she’s put into creating each individual image along with how she’s chosen to compose, edit, and present them allows us to see the emotional distance between her and the people within each image yet still portrays the warmth she feels for them. I hope I can portray a similar feeling within my own project by looking further into her work.