Rudensky’s Photo Series Featured in Rangefinder Magazine

The artwork of Assistant Professor of Art Sasha Rudensky ’01 has been featured in a multi-page spread in the January 2014 issue of Rangefinder, a monthly magazine for the professional wedding and portrait photographer.

The story is called “Culture of Brightness,” and it explores Rudensky’s “Brightness” photo series, in which she documents the lives of everyday Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. The collection was four years in the making.

Rudensky herself was born in Moscow in 1979, and in the article she explains that in Russian-Ukrainian culture, the concept of “bright” is a synonym for “being beautiful, unforgettable — something that leaves a mark.” The photos in the series seem mundane in their subject matter, but they capture the spirit of a people who have adapted to dramatic political change, having endured the fall of the Soviet Union and the transition to a new government.

Rudensky received her BA in studio art and Russian literature in 2001 at Wesleyan, and went on to earn an MFA in photography from Yale in 2008.