Interior photography in an old apartment, centered around a small object with a rich history. Through a button—a symbol of status, inheritance, or a detail of clothing—a woman’s story and her personal memory are conveyed. The concept is based on the poetry of Margery Piercy and the object’s historical origin.
I carried them from my mother’s sewing table—a wise legacy, not merely practical, but better than fading snapshots at conjuring buried seasons. A button stamped with an anchor signifies my late-grade-school pea coat. A button shaped like a white daisy from a sky-blue dress she wore, splashed with that flower, rouses her face like a rosy dahlia bent over me, peeled with curls. O sunflower, hungry for joy, who turned her face through the years, bleak, withered—still yearning. Buttons are useful, small monuments. They fasten and keep decently shut and warm. They also open. Rattling in my hand, they are shells left by vanished flesh.
Photography: Kolya Myslovsky Model: Nastya Chernova Concept, Styling: Nina Belyaeva
