Family portrait, photo embroidery on archival photograph by Yanina Shevchenko

ROOTS:

Photography. Memory. Archive.

ROOTS is a space for remembering - a space where photography becomes a tool for connecting with your story, your family, your heritage.

What is ROOTS?

ROOTS is an artistic and reflective project that invites you to explore your family history through images. It uses photography, personal archives, and reflective creative practices to help you make sense of where you come from and what you carry forward.

ROOTS is for anyone living far from their origins, for those who have lost family, grown up between cultures, or simply want to preserve memory in meaningful ways. It is about identity, transmission, and belonging.

ROOTS offers a gentle, structured way to engage with the invisible threads that shape you.

How You Can Work With Me:

  • Participant engaged in ROOTS therapeutic photography workshop by Yanina Shevchenko

    Workshops

    Group or one-on-one sessions that guide you through memory work with images. We use family photographs, storytelling, and simple creative tools to reconnect with personal narratives.

  • Stack of archival family photographs used in ROOTS project by Yanina Shevchenko

    Custom Album Journey

    A guided process to create your own family archive or memory album. You receive a handmade album and support through reflective sessions where each page becomes a space of meaning.

  • Workshop group of women reflecting on family photos during retreat with Yanina Shevchenko

    Retreats

    Slow, nourishing days combining body awareness, writing, and photographic practices. A way to reconnect with yourself while creating space for memory to resurface.

  • Artist Yanina Shevchenko leading project presentation and tour at Space for Art studio

    Talks & Collaborations

    I'm available for guest lectures, artistic collaborations, and co-creating programs with institutions, schools, or community spaces.

Photographs hold more than images. They hold emotion, memory, and longing. They become anchors for stories we inherit, forget, or reimagine.

Working with archives is not only about preservation, but about active reflection. We can re-enter family narratives, reinterpret what was passed down, and shape how we wish to continue the story.

Why Photography? Why Archives?

Old hands gently holding vintage photograph from personal family archive

“The photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.”

— Roland Barthes

Yanina Shevchenko in one-on-one therapeutic photography session with woman participant

What brought me to ROOTS?

I am a visual artist and researcher working at the intersection of photography, memory, and identity. My practice weaves together memory, archival work, and alternative photographic processes.

ROOTS was born from personal experience—as someone who lost my mother young, and who now lives far from my family home, I know the weight and tenderness of memory. This project is both an offering and a method, shaped by my training in therapeutic photography and my ongoing artistic exploration.