Fashion, portrait, beauty, editorial and advertising photography, art direction and video. These are the fields in which Kristina Varaksina, a Russian multidisciplinary artist now based in London, works.
Her images capture human emotion and psychological impressions of her subjects’ minds, allowing the characters to project their inner reality. The Essence of Beauty – her most powerful project – does so by exploring the female perspective, empowering women of all ages and cultures, evoking thoughts, dreams and hopes.

“Women and girls have been the subject of my work for a number of years – I strive always to create meaningful portraits that represent them as who they really are. Women have been taught for generations from a very young age that their essential duty in life is to be beautiful; that if you don’t fit into conventional standards of beauty you have no value, or at least a much lower value. I try to give voice to women from different ethnic, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, each doing their best to not only accept themselves as who they are, but also to be proud of this.“

Through photography and visual storytelling, Kristina Varaksina makes “ordinary” women more visible and therefore more valuable. The Essence of Beauty is a project that seeks to re-establish the essence of true beauty and does so without filters, labels or judgement, but with humility, integrity and admiration.

– Read also: Zoé Cavaro and inner exploration through photos and videos

See a selection of her photographs here, follow her on Instagram and visit her personal website.