Transplanted/Пересаджена

A documentary project about displacement and adaptation, exploring how identity and belonging evolve after moving to a new country.

Transplanted is a photographic project exploring migration, cultivation, and belonging through the life cycle of marigolds grown from seeds connected to two places. Some of these seeds were brought from Ukraine by my mother, while others were collected in Britain from flowers that had already adapted to this landscape. By planting them together, the project reflects on how identity, memory and environment intersect when a life is rebuilt in unfamiliar ground.

The work follows the seasonal process of planting seeds in a greenhouse, transplanting seedlings into garden soil, caring for their growth, and observing their blooming and eventual decay. This botanical cycle becomes a metaphor for displacement and adaptation. Like transplanted plants, people who move across borders must learn to survive within new environmental and cultural conditions while carrying traces of their origin.

Photographically, the project combines observational images of the growing process with still lifes and self-portraiture. Close studies of seeds, soil, greenhouse structures and fragile seedlings establish the environmental context in which the plants grow. These images are interwoven with staged but intimate photographs in which the flowers interact with the human body and domestic space: held in the hands, arranged in wreaths, placed against the skin or resting inside everyday interiors. Through these gestures, the marigold becomes a botanical subject and a symbol of continuity, care and memory.

Environment plays a central role in the work. The marigolds depend on British soil, climate and light to survive, and their transformation reflects the delicate relationship between living beings and the places they inhabit. The act of cultivation becomes an act of adaptation: a negotiation between origin and new surroundings.

While rooted in my personal experience of leaving Ukraine and rebuilding life in the United Kingdom, the project addresses broader questions about migration, ecological belonging and resilience. By observing the growth of a small garden flower, "Transplanted" reflects on how both plants and people respond to displacement, and how new forms of belonging can emerge through care, time and the shared ground we inhabit.