Girlfriends

The relationship between women is quieter than “strong male friendship.” The latter is difficult not to notice: it is talked about, sung about and itself makes noise with conversations, jokes and fraternization. The “weaker sex” is glorified in newspapers and toasts for maternity, beauty and exemplary housekeeping but not for its qualities of friendship, such as reliability, steadfastness, trustworthiness. Nonetheless, in Yu. A. Galev’s photographs we see various female groups who exemplify friendship: his daughter’s classmates, his wife’s teacher-friends from Vozhgora middle school, older women sitting half-turned toward each other on the porch of a house. The photographer asked some to pose for him, for example, the female teachers after work. Three girls in the sun, building something in the sand, did not notice the camera. A foursome of preschoolers ripped themselves away from a fascinating game on the central square of the village for a photograph. They have outgrown the coats that served them honestly in their street games. When the girls grow up a little, they will learn to take care of new things and tie a kerchief in both the village style and the fashionable style.

Women posing in front of the camera, as opposed to men, rarely embrace each other, they are reserved. But they do have someone with whom to share their joys, purchases, dreams and experiences.

Inna Veselova, Svetlana Adonyeva
Translation by Laura Olson Osterman, Jessika Aguilar, Alexandra Aleynik