Unbewitched
Kristina ROZHKOVA
Publisher: United Vagabonds
“Why are these girls unbewitched? One looks into a looking glass, but she is not Alice. One possesses the golden starts on her face that are given to ‘good girls’; yet her eyes roll back into another universe. We could say such figures cast spells; but not the kind that we usually expect beautiful young girls to cast in photography, under an ordinarily male gaze. That’s the thing: it is more accurate to say the photographs of Kristina Rozhkova break a spell.”
― from Claire Marie Healy’s introduction
The photobook “Unbewitched,” published by Japan-based United Vagabonds, accompanies Kristina Rozhkova’s first large-scale exhibition in Japan and brings together a series of photographs that explore personal, small-scale experiences as much as larger narratives.
In a constant clash with the persistent, excessive censorship of her home country of Russia, Rozhkova continues to express the despair, chaos, energy, and bewilderment of a shattered world. Though rooted in the experiences of young and queer Russians (all models in the book are friends and acquaintances of Rozhkova), her intimate and engaging photographs speak the universal language of disillusionment with the reality of the present.
“All fairy tales, all reveries eventually end because they clash with a rough reality. But they can teach us how to go on. And – maybe – how to continue coming up with new fairytales.”
― from Kristina Rozhkova’s afterword
Book Size 300 × 215 mm
Pages 104 pages
Binding Hardcover
Publication Year 2026
Language English, Japanese
https://www.shashasha.co/en/book/unbewitched
Publisher: United Vagabonds
“Why are these girls unbewitched? One looks into a looking glass, but she is not Alice. One possesses the golden starts on her face that are given to ‘good girls’; yet her eyes roll back into another universe. We could say such figures cast spells; but not the kind that we usually expect beautiful young girls to cast in photography, under an ordinarily male gaze. That’s the thing: it is more accurate to say the photographs of Kristina Rozhkova break a spell.”
― from Claire Marie Healy’s introduction
The photobook “Unbewitched,” published by Japan-based United Vagabonds, accompanies Kristina Rozhkova’s first large-scale exhibition in Japan and brings together a series of photographs that explore personal, small-scale experiences as much as larger narratives.
In a constant clash with the persistent, excessive censorship of her home country of Russia, Rozhkova continues to express the despair, chaos, energy, and bewilderment of a shattered world. Though rooted in the experiences of young and queer Russians (all models in the book are friends and acquaintances of Rozhkova), her intimate and engaging photographs speak the universal language of disillusionment with the reality of the present.
“All fairy tales, all reveries eventually end because they clash with a rough reality. But they can teach us how to go on. And – maybe – how to continue coming up with new fairytales.”
― from Kristina Rozhkova’s afterword
Book Size 300 × 215 mm
Pages 104 pages
Binding Hardcover
Publication Year 2026
Language English, Japanese
https://www.shashasha.co/en/book/unbewitched
