Translated material
The service life
COLTA. RU publishes a photoproject of Lilia Liliy-Miyan “Masters and Servants”, which became one of the most noticeable last year and received a nomination for the Kandinsky Prize .
From the author
For centuries, service personnel have been working in rich houses - maids, managers, cooks, gardeners. These professions have firmly occupied their niche in the world sphere of services, but in Russia they are still second -grade classes. Applicants perceive this step as something temporary, even shameful in some ways.
Employers, in turn, want to find someone who will do their work qualitatively. They evaluate the professional skills of the applicant, clearly realizing and making it clear that personal problems and stories of employees remain behind the scenes.
And in the life of the family, a new, so far completely stranger appears.
A person who should become indispensable and at the same time invisible.
A person who will know more about everyday matters than anyone, and remain silent at the same time. He had and has his own life, the ability to hide which is also an important element of his professionalism, which allows to maintain a distance.
Where is the very line when the showed interest of some and the openness of others will be beneficial, while maintaining a specific barrier? Safety barrier, independence. After all, knowledge entail affection, and this is a completely different story. Stories. History of the owners of houses and their servants.
I did not change anyone in places, showing their daily life. I wanted to open the veil of “Secrets”, bringing the questions to the forefront: who are these people in the photographs, where did they come from, where they studied, do they have families, why are they here now?