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Mariia Karlenko

@forest_prayer

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Ukraine; Canada, BC, Vancouver

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This is my friend Ahmad, the first Egyptian person who became a real, not merely hypothetical human of this mighty ancient nation that I have encountered in my life.

I can’t help but judge countries based on their people. Therefore, my current judgments of Egypt are nothing less than intelligent, humane, compassionate, and genuine.

Ahmad became my safe companion at Wreck Beach — a beautiful place at the Strait of Georgia where one can strip naked and expose oneself to Sun and Ocean freely and unrestricted.

My friend shielded me from undesired approaches of botherers. He challenged me to get into the cold water way before the season, treated me with fruits, entertained me with card games, and helped me with my ridiculous idea to carry 20 kilos of sand from the beach to my yard. But most importantly, he taught me how unique and precious this naked freedom is in comparison with some other governments and their restrictions on basic human freedoms; that this place should be safe and respected, and that fully clothed spectators shouldn’t be tolerated, even if I personally don’t care about their presence.

Today Ahmad left Canada.

Safe travels, my friend! Wishing you all the best in your further endeavors. Thank you for your friendship, and I really hope to see you again here or elsewhere.

The second image was taken by Ahmad at Wreck Beach the last time we hung out. #35mmfilm #doubleexposurephotography #body #beach #friend taken in Wreck Beach by @forest_prayer

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3 months ago

I was thinking today about how some aspects of being are straightforward, while others are extremely complicated. One way this polarity manifests in my life is through surrender and maturity.

Sometimes, attachments to situations, things, people, ways of perceiving naturally and gradually fall away, dissolve, or transform into something new without me even noticing the process.

At other times, however, that same process of shedding redundancies becomes difficult and painful — to the extremes where I not only refuse letting go, but don’t even realize that I need to. Yet at a certain point in time, it feels as though I no longer have a choice. It’s as if external circumstances outgrow my attachments much faster than I do.

In those moments, I am faced with the necessity of doing the labour of reflecting, explaining, accepting, actively letting go, transitioning into the unknown and then suspending myself in there while maintaining mental integrity. Patiently exploring until something new emerges to replace what I am struggling so hard to release.

Inevitable flow in music or ever-changing nature could be good mentors if I would be able to think of that while my mind is drowning in anxiety.

Photographed on ‘Свема’ - film originally manufactured for the motion picture purposes, rolled on photography spool
Autumn 2025 #свема #blackandwhite #35mmfilm #feet #autumnleaves🍁🍂 taken in Mount Pleasant, Vancouver BC by @forest_prayer

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3 months ago

This is the third and the last part of my spring b&w double exposure on 35mm film
Can’t get enough of this one
I guess, it’s my favourite roll at this moment
Couldn’t stop playing with different frame cuts, combining, subtracting neighbouring shots
Will repit myself again, I love double exposure!

PS let the chosen music become my gentle reminder to any one who looks, listens and reads that even though we can capture some moments sometimes (on the camera, for instance), none of these are actually caught All is final and therefore eternally precious
Love you

#35mm #blackandwhile #doubleexposure #portrait #urban taken in Vancouver, British Columbia by @forest_prayer

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4 months ago

Sharing some portraits of people from my Vancouver life in b&w from the same film as my self portraits.
Past spring was really good. This film has a lot of images that I genuinely like. I love double exposure! PS Emmanuel, I miss you

#35mm #blackandwhile #doubleexposure #portrait #urban taken in Vancouver, British Columbia by @forest_prayer

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4 months ago

Want to share with you some of b&w self portraits I did passed spring
For some reason this film with all it’s broken and overlapping imagery geometry brings me a lot of satisfaction

#35mm #blackandwhite #doubleexposure #portrait #urban taken in Vancouver, British Columbia by @forest_prayer

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4 months ago

We say “You run away to utopia”
We say it like it’s true
We like to say this
This way of speaking belongs to us
It’s safe
You say “A utopia needs to contain this, an actual dream
A dream is where we don’t consider ourselves
We just appear in a symbolic state
A dream is where we set ourselves aside
Dreaming
Is the plan without the plan”
And this song is regulated by copyright regulations
And dreaming doesn’t have copyright
I guess you could say “The revolution will not be owned”
A dream is a remix of awake, something is opened
And lets go of consciousness
And self-control
Like in surgery something fizzles out
And is replaced
The creature makes its sortie
I wake up to the first frost, experienced
Previously inhabited, like a summer house
What lies by my bed, an impossible creature
Abject and succulent” (c)
33mm, Vancouver is a strange dream taken in Vancouver, British Columbia by @forest_prayer

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6 months ago

concussion

first encounter with a wild forest fire.

in a time of war all processes become mutually referential.
anything of subjective significance could serve as a metaphor for something less comprehensible, and even less expressible.

attempts to speak of one’s anguish descriptively may result in discoloration or flattening of the primary subject.

emotions are universal, experiences are shared, circumstances recur across time and continents. yet, perception belongs uniquely to each perceiver.

when phenomena that appear unrelated at first sight begin to speak through one another, simply by expressing themselves, the indescribable space in which they intersect begins to emerge with the greatest precision.

This video work was a part of a group exhibition ‘6x6’ in ‘This Gallery’, Vancouver, BC in march 2024 taken in Vancouver, British Columbia by @forest_prayer

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6 months ago

alchemical transfiguration

captured this double exposure synthesis during last Hanukah-Christmas period, previous cultural big time of reboot - if one would desire.
now, while being in the midst of another transformative egregore, which is marked by Chaitra Navratri, Ramadan, approaching Easter and what’s not else just want to note for myself and who ever is reading somebody-else’s letters that all is secondary to nature.
All is constructed by mind, not even yours or mine, but those who’ve been before us.

Quoting the free man:
“think” the condition, and “I” the conditioned;
“I,” therefore, only a synthesis which has been MADE by thinking itself”. (c)

this year’s spring is very strong
seeking truth in nature taken in Vancouver, British Columbia by @forest_prayer

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7 months ago

First encounter of a coyote
Prior to the evocative moment
as it was
I’ve heard a thing
I’ve never HEAR before.
Wow.
New language
Wander if I can speak it myself? to write even
maybe? by @forest_prayer

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7 months ago

paris dec 2024 - vancouver oct 2025
double exposure, film 35mm

thinking about friends that are alive but away.
as well as about those who left for ever.
about one in particular.
her death completely changed my life.

once i promised to steal a relict for her. when i finally found it,
since she was no longer around, i captured it for myself instead.
now it hurts to see.
yet, from time to time i’m opening a particular folder to look at a specific image.

my new iranian friends and acquaintances,
thinking about you.
and your pain.
and your fear.
so familiar and so unfair

“remembering is not opposite of forgetting
It’s like the lining”(c) by @forest_prayer

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7 months ago

paris - vancouver, dec 2024 - jul 2025, double exposure, 35mm

Out of the ruins
Blood grown heavy from his past
His wings stripped by thunder
But those storms keep coming back
Singing birds in sickness
Sing the same blues songs
When they fell out of the emptiness
They must have brought along
Space’s loneliness
Space’s loneliness
He’s gotten so good at hiding it
Even he does not admit it
That glittering flash in his eyes
Makes it look like he might be alright
But if the blues are your hunter
You will come face to face
That darkness and desolation
And the endless, endless, endless, endless
Endless, endless depression
But you are not helpless
You are not helpless
Try to beat it
Try to beat it
And live through space’s loneliness
And live through space’s loneliness
You are not helpless
You are not helpless
I’ll help you to try, try to beat it

[optimistic fool moon mood] by @forest_prayer

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9 months ago

35mm
double exposure Kyiv - Vancouver, spring 2025; self portrait summer 2025

Smiling into 34 taken in Kyiv, Podil by @forest_prayer

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10 months ago