Masked: Yura Matiyun

Yura Matiyun is a 31-year-old Minsk-based photographer from Belarus, who professional interest in photography began in 2005. Yura’s main directions of work are focused toward documentary photography and street photography as well as art projects. Yura attemps to research human existence like scientific phenomenon, combining methods of sociology and psychology.

About Masked: ”Masked is on-going project about the compromise between the anonymity of ordinary people and the revealing glance of Other. The majority of subjects refused to be photographed, but changed their minds when I proposed them to put on a mask. What makes us hide our faces from straight glance of a camera? Religion? Superstitious believes? Social norms or cultural peculiarities? With help of this project I’m trying to understand what makes us closer to each other and how we can overpass the social distances.”