About me
Yulia Fernandes (b. 1981) is a visual artist based between Moscow and Lisbon. Her work explores the search for a lost home, challenging the notion that “home is a place of refuge” and safety and highlighting the fragility of human existence amidst environmental and political upheaval. Through portraits, landscapes, and documentary photography, Yulia examines the urgency of the climate crisis and the delicate balance between nature and humanity. She searches for home in landscapes, portraits, road journeys, and migration, aiming to redefine notions of freedom and boundaries. Interweaving personal and documentary elements, Yulia uses metaphors and nature to reinterpret the anxiety of migration and the quest for home, reflecting her and her children’s experiences.
Biography
I was born in Moscow, USSR, in 1981 and studied intercultural communication and linguistics at Moscow State University, as well as documentary film and documentary theater directing at the Marina Razbezhkina and Mikhail Ugarov School. Lived in Moscow, Prague, London, Lisbon. I have been working as an international news producer since 2004, shooting photo projects and documentaries, drawing patterns for fabrics, and working with interdisciplinary practices. With the help of photography and video, I explore surrounding events, rethink national identity, explore the theme of memory, home and migration. My works are often devoted to the problems of finding a home and the collision of space with a person. Identity with a place, a sense of belonging, a sense of home — these are the themes that excite me and which I explore through my projects
Education and work
EDUCATION:
Documentary Filmaking, School of Documentary Film & Theatre of Marina Razbezhkina & Mikhail Ugarov, Moscow — September 2012 -June 2014
Linguistics & Intercultural Communication, Moscow State University, September 1999 — June 2004. Dissertation: ‘National identity of small nations in the context of globalisation’.
WORK:
2006-ongoing — Senior News Producer for Al Jazeera Media Network.
2014-2015 — Researcher and photographer for The National Film Board of Canada multi-media project on vertical living .
Publications in 2024
Shutterhub YEARBOOK award 2024
Awards& trainings
Nizina Project Photography Laboratory by Kristina Sergeyeva– 2024
‘Portrait as an event’ Photography laboratory by Victoria Bykovskaya — 2024
Safety and Security For Journalists course, Aljazeera Training Center, Doha — 2016
Hostile Environments & Emergency First Aid Training. Centurion, UK — 2012
Documentary film ‘What am I afraid of’. 2015 — Rising Star Award’ for Documentary Direction, Canada Int. Film Festival. Silver Palm Award. Student Competition’. Mexico Int. Film Festival. Trailer — www.vimeo.com/132037989
‘People and Power: Ingushetia — A Second Chechnya? ’. 2010 Amnesty International UK Media Awards.