Fine Art nominee

I was moved by the part of one of contest rules: "Post capture processes (...) is allowed, but not for the purpose of claiming an artificial subject to be natural". Which suddenly made me think: "What IS real or "natural", anyway? Even if not claimed to be that". Some years ago I was going home from hospital where I had just seen everything commonly considered a usual thing for a place where ailing people were recovering. I was going along the streets with large posters and loud pop music playing around. One of the posters said: "REAL PEOPLE". No need to say the models looked "ideal" from heads to toes, with no blemishes, signs of looking "unhealhty" (EVER in life), imperfections by general standards, and no place left without either "natural" aspects, including make-up, style and light, or post-processing. I sighed. The pop music continued its rhythm, seeming to add even more sense to "Ideal Illusionary Utopia". No wonder, it did...
This piece is a composite of long exposure self-portraits, conveying the idea of fixed chairs as main subject, with balancing "spirits", moving erratically and giving an illusion of multiple people in "game", their shapes or features just slightly defined.

Ekaterina Zagustina (aka KatjaFaith) is a Russian illustrator and photographer. The base of most of her works is a photograph, digitally manipulated and/or mixed with digital painting. Among her publications are several book covers for Apex Book Company, Viaje a Bizancio Ediciones, cover art for THE SORROW KING by Andersen Prunty, EXIT by Shane Filer, as well as some other book illustrations and CD-covers (US, Canada, Spain, Russia).
Her works have been featured in PhotArt, Fashion Collection, BigMag, Sugarkiss Magazine, Sketchozine, Apex Magazine, #photography, Photo+, etc.
Published in artbooks "The Best of the Best Photographers 2015. One Eyeland Book Vol. 5", "Inspiration International Artbook 2016".
She has been working more in the field of photography with her art for some time, creating some surreal/conceptual/sci-fi/social concepts and ideas for the new series of works as fully self-produced personal projects.
Award holder in: Trierenberg Super Circuit and Special Circuit (2 Gold Medals, 2 Gold Medals of Excellence), International Photography Awards (2nd category prize, HMs), Moscow International Photography Awards (3rd place, HMs), Prix de la Photographie (PX3) (Bronze Medal in People's Choice, HMs), One Eyeland Photography Awards (Bronze), London International Creative Competition (LICC), Neutral Density Photography Awards and some others.