Time Regained

The truth will only begin to emerge from the moment that the writer takes two different objects […] and encloses them within the circle of fine style […] unites them in a metaphor.
Time Regained, Marcel Proust

The series Time Regained, born from the COVID-19 lockdowns, takes the viewer on a journey through a deserted, nude, yet always beautiful and resilient Venice. On the surface, this is a story about the city, but if we look a little deeper, it is also about the viewer.

The protagonist of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is drawn into memory through sensory triggers, most famously the madeleine. Similarly, by finding metaphors in the titles of the photographs, viewers can immerse themselves in their own reflections. Some metaphors are easy to read, while others are more complex. For example, the photograph Crosses hides a philosophical reflection on how modern media has, in some way, replaced religion, something that became even more evident during the lockdown period. However, I would like to leave this play of imagination to the viewers. As they move through the series, they encounter thought-provoking images such as Chained, On the Other Side, 2020–2021, and finally Recovery.

Yes, we were stopped. However, the time was not lost — it was regained. While climate change and environmental challenges remain critical for Venice, the city showed remarkable progress during this period. In 2020, the long-awaited MoSE flood barriers were finally activated, and the ban on cruise ships marked a vital step toward saving the lagoon’s fragile ecosystem.

The central photograph of the project, Recovery, holds profound symbolic importance. Having worked in Venice for many years, I had never once seen fish in its waters. Yet one day in 2021, between lockdowns, while running past the Bacino Orseolo Gondola Station, I could not believe my eyes: the fish had returned, and there were more of them than gondolas.

Ultimately, whether Lost Time or Regained Time is a personal choice that extends beyond the lockdowns.

🡓 Click on a photo to open the full-screen gallery and see the titles

Edition of 10 plus 2 artist’s proofs (including all formats). Each fine art print is numbered, signed, and delivered with a Hahnemühle certificate of authenticity.
Formats and frames on request.

LensCulture review

Eva Vasilyeva is a talented photographer with high aesthetic criteria and a restless spirit. Eva’s series is excellent in every way and, believe me, I have said this only a few times. Images have high technical and artistic quality, the atmosphere is unique, diptychs are successfully structured, and conceptually there is more than one interpretive level. The personal character of her work is obvious and becomes its most crucial feature increasing its authenticity.

The title refers to the metaphorical meaning of the work and the connection with Proust’s famous book is an inspiring one. The statement introduces us to the work and explains the connection nicely. Beyond the above, the personal character of her work is obvious and becomes its most crucial feature increasing its authenticity. What we see here is not an objective presentation of Venice but Eva’s subjective view on it.

Lockdown gave Eva the time to deal with the place in a closer way and her relationship with it helped her to express thoughts and feelings of the specific moment. Eva’s commitment and personal interest in this work are visible in the way she presents Venice while she discovers connections and relationships between the elements of the space around. Photography like every art form proves also its role as a way out of every hard situation. The empty from people but not deserted Venice becomes a metaphor of an inner journey and the pairs of images here could be a symbolism of you and your inner self in a probably unconscious dialogue. I imagine this dialogue like the creation of a poem by two people where one of them writes the first verse and the other matches the second.

Be sure that I will show Eva’s project to my students for many reasons. I wish Eva Vasilyeva good luck, and I’m looking forward to seeing more from her in the future.

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