Dinara Kasimova

Dinara Kasimova 19/10/1983 Russia

A phrase, once dropped by a friend of mine, became the inspiration for my future work as a photographer. She, being an artist, said: “It must be very exciting to be a photographer! You can go everywhere; the whole world is opened for you.” At one point of my life it dawned on me that photography might be the way to get to the place where it is not that easy to be let in. Later it turned out that with the help of the visual language I can tell whole stories.

I was born in Tomsk, one of the biggest cities of the Siberia region of Russia. There I worked as a photographer in a local newspaper. I took pictures of the children in orphanages. It was then that I understood that there do exist children with disabilities. Just before I witnessed it with my own eyes I had never really thought about it. I took pictures of the moments that moved me most of all. At that time I learned to understand and love children, I took pictures of, even if they had sniffles on their lips.

 Life is much more complicated than photography and I do things which I like and which do not run counter to my moral values.