BINOM

"This extraordinary artist book intertwines personal and national histories through the lens of her late father’s photographic archive."— Yumi Goto

In September 2001, Natalia’s father took his own life, marking the beginning of a journey that would uncover his hidden past and the duality of the Soviet and modern Russian state.

Her father spent over 25 years as a KGB cryptographer, developing encryption algorithms and securing government communications. His work was highly classified, forbidden even to discuss with his own family. Only after his death did Natalia realize the extent of his double life, mirroring the contradictions of the state itself—one that promotes peace in propaganda while carrying out aggressive military actions.

Binom visually reconstructs this personal and political duality using her father’s photographs, slides, family albums, official documents, and Natalia’s own imagery. It highlights how, in an era of manipulated national narratives, personal history becomes a powerful counterpoint to state-controlled versions of truth.

This is an extremely limited edition, entirely hand-bound by the artist herself, making each copy a deeply personal and unique object.

* Binom ("bi"- Latin prefix meaning "two" and "nomial" is the adjective form of nomen, Latin for "name") - is a short word for binomial. A binomial is a polynomial/ algebraic expression with two terms. The students of the 4th Technical (cryptography) faculty of the High School of KGB, USSR jokingly called themselves "binomes".

The book was self-published with the support of the Reminders Photography Stronghold.