ANNA ARCHEN
Herbarium of Virginity

Captivated by the medium of collage and inspired by Patrick Süskind’s “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” and the ephemeral beauty of herbariums, I envisioned a project titled "Herbarium of Virginity” as an embodiment of the idea of ​​capturing and preserving the intangible beauty of youth. By juxtaposing photographs of a model with images of dried plants, I created a surreal narrative that reflects the ephemeral nature of life and decay. I imagined myself as a collector, conserving the elusive essence of a young body, akin to a botanist meticulously drying and cataloging living plants into a herbarium. Collage became my tool for expressing this idea, weaving together disparate elements, comparing the living and the dead, three-dimensional and flat, dismembering and spreading flesh on the pictorial plane to convey a sense of vulnerability and fragility, and the fleetingness and transience of time.

Author
Anna Archen is a visual artist specialising in photography and digital collage art.
Born in Russia in 1984, she relocated to the UK in 2022 and is currently based in London.
From an early age, visual language has been her natural and primary means of self-expression and exploration of the world. Anna graduated from Moscow Region State University with a master's degree in fine arts in 2006. Since 2015, Anna has focused on her career as a fashion and beauty photographer, incorporating the strong artistic qualities she developed through her education. Anna is able to easily leap between commercial and creative worlds, as well as gently blending them together. In addition to direct photography, Anna employs digital collage in her artistic practice, using it as a storytelling tool to create complex visual images that convey her ideas and concepts to the viewer.

Website
www.annaarchen.com

Instagram
@annaarchen

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