NOGA SHTAINER

Home for special Children
(2008-2009)

“Home for Special Children” is the name of an institute in which I took photos in Rivne, Ukraine. The children in this orphanage suffer from vary- ing degrees of disability. My interest in photo- graphing this place came from experiences in my own childhood as well as previous projects in which I dealt with childhood and the transition to adolescence. Our encounter was one without words; their language, Russian, was foreign to me and so were their gestures and mentality. The camera and the action of photographing be- came the source of our connection and likewise the instants of photography became intimate, private moments, isolated and unique in the midst of their familiar daily environment. During my stay at the orphanage and throughout the realisation of my experience, I ob- served a place that was essentially an expression of Eastern European education, characterised by a polite restraint, and a certain strictness and nobility. The place formed a sort of microcosmos of Eastern European culture.