Sasha Andruzheychik – a fine art photographer residing in Chicago – combines digital manipulation, 19th century printing processes, and other varieties of mixed media to create work that primarily focusses on surrealist and feminist theories, even as it avoids advancing particular agendas.

Sasha’s portfolio consists of three major series: Dream Sequence, Mass Produced and Cosmetic Paintings. The last two examine issues related to the representation of women in today’s society. Among them, the objectification of the female form (the body is shown as the part-machine it is often treated as) and unrealistic beauty standards (splashes of foundation, lipstick, nail polish, etc. are displayed independently; make-up is exposed as substance that isn’t natural to or necessarily required by women).

The Dream Sequence, on the other hand, is a dizzying deconstruction of space and time wherein imagined creatures, scenes and objects come together to create a strange and fascinating graphic world. Printed through the Van Dyke Brown photographic process, this collection draws from Freudian concepts of the unconscious and the uncanny.

Sasha explains: “Many of the photographs here represent dreams and nightmares that I’ve experienced, while others are inspired by moments and random thoughts. Some images, like ‘Faceless’ and ‘Chicago’ explore the idea of losing one’s identity – becoming a drone, so to speak, in a city that tries to encourage creativity, but is ultimately overpowered by certain trends and expectations. ‘Chicago’ is also a nod towards René Magritte’s ‘Golconda’. Others, like ‘Implications’ and ‘Fetish Object’ (inspired by Hans Bellmer’s ‘The Doll’) explore desires and sexuality. ‘Transitions’ is a remake of an image I made shortly after I began photographing in my teens, during a time when I found it difficult to remain at peace in my mind through some major life changes.  To me, it symbolises that moment of breaking through to the other side and realising that everything would be all right.”

In addition to Magritte and Bellmer, Sasha admires the following artists – Man Ray, Hannah Hoch, Max Ernst, Andre Masson, Joan Miró, Henri Matisse, Laszlo Maholy-Nagy and Salvador Dalí. “As far as living ones are concerned,” she adds, “I have always felt inspired by Robert and Shana Parke-Harrison, Jerry Uelsmann, Joel-Peter Witkin and Barbara Kruger.”