My Psychedelic Garden

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Inna Etuvgi - an art photographer with Aphantasia, specializing in the macro world of northern nature, based in Sweden. Etuvgi was born in 1982 in a small village on the shores of the Arctic Ocean in Chukotka, Russia. In 2005 Etuvgi graduated from the Faculty of Technical Cybernetics of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University with honors and a master's degree. In 2018 Etuvgi moved to Sweden, where being inspired by the local nature, she started macro photography in 2020. Technical education became for the author a good basis for self-education in photography, which in turn became her ideal medium to express feelings and the way to explore the world. In 2022 Etuvgi became a finalist at the Arte Laguna Prize 16 with her macro photos of Cladonia Stellaris lichens. Etuvgi's artworks are in private collections in Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and England. Etuvgi has visual blindness of the mind, which is called Aphantasia. She can visualize neither memories nor dreams about the future. Her inner screen is off, says Etuvgi about the imagination. Instead of images, her fantasy stands on mental concepts, ideas, and emotions. The mind's disability in visual imagination has moved Etuvgi to find her way in creative photography. As she says, the camera became an instrument, a kind of prosthesis that helps her to see the imaginary world. "I've grown up in the far north, where nature is undersized, and in some places, only lichens and mosses can grow. I think that macro photography is the best instrument to explore the world of northern nature, as it helps us to see something that is so small that often stays unseen or even hidden from our naked eyes. And for me, "macro" has become even more than photography, but is an instrument to explore my inner world. Having Aphantasia, I never know in advance what I will shoot, I don't have any references or planning, as my imagination lacks images. Instead, I have emotions and ideas, that I perceive through the whole body. The visualization of my self-experiences and my fantasies, I find in macro photography. It is hard to explain, but it feels like the "video signal" of my imagination goes to the screen of my camera, which in its turn becomes a kind of my fantasy prosthesis. Photography for me is more about an experiment and a search, which aim is to find something that captures me and reflects my ideas or feelings. And it is like a dialogue with nature when nature speaks with me in the visual language, telling stories that I can capture to share with others. In my photos, I want to show people the world of Nature through my eyes and show that we live in a wonderful world! The same way as we want to know better someone with whom we fall in love, I offer to know better the world around us, as it also can be the way to understand ourselves" - says Etuvgi.