Dina Belenko
Conceptual Still Life Photographer
Hi, I'm Dina Belenko,
a still life photographer whose work explores the emotional and symbolic weight of ordinary objects:
how mundane things — broken porcelain, scattered leaves, found keepsakes — can hold complex emotions and reflect human experience.
a still life photographer whose work explores the emotional and symbolic weight of ordinary objects:
how mundane things — broken porcelain, scattered leaves, found keepsakes — can hold complex emotions and reflect human experience.
My work revolves around the emotional resonance of objects, the way they absorb time, memory, and human presence. Still life, often perceived as static, becomes a medium for storytelling, where the arrangement of ordinary things reveals the invisible traces of human presence. I am drawn to the aesthetics of the mundane, to the poetry hidden in chipped coffee cups, crumpled paper, and the familiar clutter of daily life.
I am particularly interested in the way familiar objects transform under the weight of displacement. After relocating from my hometown to Los Angeles, I began working with the personal artifacts I carried with me as a means of understanding loss and adaptation.
Still life, to me, is not just about arrangement — it is about storytelling.
Each object carries its own weight of existence, shaped by the hands that held it, the places it has been, and the silence it inhabits.
My work seeks to reveal these unseen narratives, capturing the moment where the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Each object carries its own weight of existence, shaped by the hands that held it, the places it has been, and the silence it inhabits.
My work seeks to reveal these unseen narratives, capturing the moment where the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Other side of the sea
Other Side of the Sea is a photographic exploration of displacement that reflects on the fragile yet enduring ties between past and present, homeland and exile, using still life as a means to articulate the complexities of transition and loss.
Broken cups in these fragile balancing constructions are part of my props that I've brought from home, managing to pack my life into two suitcases. Delicate and displaced, they stand in contrast to magnolia cones, strange thorns, ginkgo leaves and others (very unusual to me!) botanical forms were found on the streets of Los Angeles.
Here every artificial element is brought from my home and every natural one is found on the other side of the sea.
The objects I carried with me serve as anchors to a life left behind, while the strange, unfamiliar flora gives me not only a form of comfort, but also a sense of resilience and a hope for adaptation. Each composition is a fragile construction, where balance is both literal and symbolic. Porcelain fragments teeter on the edge of collapse, echoing the precarious nature of rebuilding identity in exile, creating a dialogue between the familiar and the foreign.
This project is not just about personal loss; it is about the universal experience of migration and the emotional labor of finding belonging in unfamiliar places. Through still life photography, Other Side of the Sea captures the resilience embedded in both objects and people, examining how memory reshapes itself in new environments. I wonder how these Californian garden findings will now grow on Far Eastern broken porcelain.
Broken cups in these fragile balancing constructions are part of my props that I've brought from home, managing to pack my life into two suitcases. Delicate and displaced, they stand in contrast to magnolia cones, strange thorns, ginkgo leaves and others (very unusual to me!) botanical forms were found on the streets of Los Angeles.
Here every artificial element is brought from my home and every natural one is found on the other side of the sea.
The objects I carried with me serve as anchors to a life left behind, while the strange, unfamiliar flora gives me not only a form of comfort, but also a sense of resilience and a hope for adaptation. Each composition is a fragile construction, where balance is both literal and symbolic. Porcelain fragments teeter on the edge of collapse, echoing the precarious nature of rebuilding identity in exile, creating a dialogue between the familiar and the foreign.
This project is not just about personal loss; it is about the universal experience of migration and the emotional labor of finding belonging in unfamiliar places. Through still life photography, Other Side of the Sea captures the resilience embedded in both objects and people, examining how memory reshapes itself in new environments. I wonder how these Californian garden findings will now grow on Far Eastern broken porcelain.
Biography
Born in a small town in the Russian Far East, she discovered photography through a simple film camera gifted by her parents. What began as casual snapshots soon evolved into a deeper exploration of visual storytelling. She earned a Master’s degree in Publishing and Editing from the Far Eastern University of Humanities, a background that shaped her approach to composition and narrative photography.
Initially, her work leaned toward playful, whimsical still life: fairy tales told through levitating coffee cups and playful arrangements.
However, political turmoil of 2022 forced her into an abrupt relocation to Los Angeles, a move that transformed both her life and artistic focus. Now, her work centers on themes of displacement, homesickness, and adaptation.
Belenko’s photography has been exhibited across Russia, the United States, and Europe. She has authored multiple books on creative still life photography, including Composition as Visual Storytelling (2024).
She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, navigating a new creative landscape while continuing to explore the unseen stories hidden in everyday objects.