![zula world zula world](https://www.idcgames.com/images/resources/Zula/ZWC/semis_2.png)
During Communism in Eastern Europe cash was largely worthless due to high inflation, and people invested in crystal, which was passed down through generations. This self-portrait is called "My Mother's Dowery" and I wear my grandma’s special New Year’s Eve outfit, known as the “Nefertiti Collar” which was smuggled from Thailand. I “wear” and “perform” my family history and reflect on how the memories of women in my family have shaped my identity. In the series, I use various items, and amongst others, I include my mum’s first kitchen curtains, a handmade sheep coat, my grandma's special swimsuit and Coca Cola towels won in a radio competition. Holding onto these items facilitated a connection with the past and our family in Poland. My mum spent years bringing clothes and glassware from Poland to the UK, as these enabled her to maintain a physical bond with Polish culture, and helped us create a feeling of "home", something that we have always found difficult since moving to the UK. The images were inspired by a personal need to reconcile parts of my family history and conversations with my mum. I created this project during the 2020/21 winter lockdown and was my own creative director, stylist, assistant, model and photographer. Using self-portraiture, I wear my ancestors’ clothes, connect with my family heritage, and highlight the war-torn complexity of Eastern Europe. I moved to the UK 20 years ago as a child and this move created a physical and cultural rupture with my family and Polish society.
ZULA WORLD SERIES
Zula says: “ This image is part of my most recent series entitled "Becoming Herstory." This is a personal project which explores the idea of home, belonging and migration.
![zula world zula world](https://anderbot.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Zula-Global-2.jpg)
In this series, A World That Others Can't See, I ask fellow photographers to talk about an image from their portfolios in order to discover the stories behind their work and to learn about the person behind the lens.įor the twelfth post of the series, social documentary and commercial photographer Zula Rabikowska shares with me her most recent work, from her self-portrait project "Becoming Herstory." In a way, every single one of our photographs is also a portrait of ourselves. Our role as photographers is to capture a world that others can't see, and in this process, we leave a little bit of us in every photo that we take.