Leni Smoragdova

Photographs, including my own self-portraits, look like deformed Polaroids. This is my pain. This is my emptiness. This is my desire to touch something that has already disappeared. I capture the moment, knowing that this act destroys it. I am not looking for understanding — I am looking for presence. The trace that remains is the only form of closeness. But the harder I hold on, the faster it melts away.