Anna Yam

Born in Yekaterinburg, Russia, 1980
Lives and works in Tel Aviv

Anna Yam presents a collection of photographs centered on female figures. Some were taken from her own family album or from other family albums; others are staged or documentary pictures she photographed herself. The viewer, however, cannot distinguish between them. The most appropriate caption for these images seems to be the famous opening sentence of Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."


Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina is one of world literature's most touching and tragic heroines. Tolstoy published the novel by this name in 1877, after parts of it had already appeared in a monthly magazine. Anna Karenina is a member of Saint- Petersburg's high society, a married woman and mother who falls in love with a dashing military man named Count Vronsky. When their affair is discovered, she leaves her husband and travels to Europe with Vronsky and the daughter she bore him, yet refuses to divorce her husband for fear of losing her son. Upon returning to Russia, Anna discovers that she has been excluded from her social circle. Vronsky distances himself from her, and she is overcome by despair, fear, anxiety, and repulsion. When she understands she can no longer continue living the life she is trapped in, she throws herself under a moving train. The character of Anna Karenina, like the novel as a whole, raises questions concerning social norms, love, happiness, family life, personal decisions, and morality.