BINOM photobook

This project started as a personal story of copying the family trauma of my father ’s suicide in 2001. Exploring my dad’s photo archive and personal belongings after his death I realized that he had another, secret life. For over 25 years he worked as a KGB cryptographer, developing encryption algorithms to secure government communications. His role was so classified that even his family remained unaware of its full scope. In the BINOM photobook, I portray his two separate lives through a dual-volume visual narrative, reflecting the duality and contradictions of Soviet state propaganda that proclaimed peace while initiating military aggression.

This photobook is about the beauty and impartiality of mathematics, which serves both the brilliant creators of innovative products and the secret services of severe dictators with equal fidelity. It is about double lives and the destructive power of secrecy, especially when built upon a great lie. It is about the force of propaganda and the learned blindness—the peculiar trait of Soviet and Russian citizens to live parallel domestic lives, detached from politics. And it is about my family and my country, Russia—a love that carries a bitter aftertaste.

* Binom ("bi"- Latin prefix meaning "two" and "nomial" is the adjective form of nomen, Latin for "name") - is a short word for binomial. A binomial is a polynomial/ algebraic expression with two terms. The students of the 4th Technical (cryptography) faculty of the High School of KGB, USSR jokingly called themselves "binomes".

“This extraordinary artist book intertwines personal and national histories through the lens of her late father’s photographic archive.
BINOM visually reconstructs this personal and political duality using her father’s photographs, slides, family albums, official documents, and Natalia’s own imagery. It highlights how, in an era of manipulated national narratives, personal history becomes a powerful counterpoint to state-controlled versions of truth.
This is an extremely limited edition, entirely hand-bound by the artist herself, making each copy a deeply personal and unique object,”  Yumi Goto, curator, Reminders Photography Projects.