Ayar Kuo was born in Yakutia. As a child, she lived in small villages surrounded by the taiga forest, where life was not much different from that centuries ago. She left home in 2007, and photography became a way for her self-discovery in the grip of nostalgia, the nostalgia for the many things left behind: the nature, traditions, culture, mentality, and religion of her native land.
Ayar states, “No matter where I live, I never feel I am separate from my native land. Whatever I do in life stems from my upbringing and my affinity with the place I grew up in. This is true for my photography projects where I try to capture the interactions of humans and their environment, the will and capacity to not just survive, but live happily under the harshest of conditions, borrowing strength from ancient religious practices. Photography makes me pay attention to things I previously chose to ignore, and the distance between myself and my home allows me to see meaning where I previously seemed to find none."
Contact Ayar through her website: www.ayarkuo.org
