Roxana Savin challenges domestic ideals, and the pressure to conform to gendered expectations

View Gallery 12 Photos

In 2012, Savin and her family relocated to a gated expatriate community in Russia. Her latest photobook visualises the loss of self she experienced during this shift into a heavily gendered society

“It was situated in a remote area outside Moscow,” says Romanian-born photographer Roxana Savin. “Fenced, 24-hour security, all self-contained with a gym, swimming pool, school, grocery store, and beauty salon.” Savin is describing her home of eight years, a “golden cage” community of expatriate families moving to Russia from across the world. Savin and her family moved there in 2012, to support her husband’s job. “In a majority of cases, Men were breadwinners, and women, who left their careers, became housewives.”

From the series I'll be late tonight, © Roxana Savin.

Savin’s self-published photobook, I’ll be late tonight, documents the photographer’s time in the community. “I have a law degree and worked as a legal adviser. I took time off when we had children, but returning to my job was impossible.” Work permits are rarely granted to the spouse (or “dependant”) of the visa-holder. Savin found herself isolated, part of a group of women reinventing their lives in this new strictly gendered space.

“I struggled with a loss of identity due to the confinement,” She explains. Savin was searching for a fulfilment, a purpose that could keep her grounded and fulfilled. She eventually found this in the Fine Art School of Photography, Moscow. “In 2016, I met the founder and asked him if I could join photography lessons. I was accepted as a student, and attended courses over the next two years, traveling from the residence to the city,”  she explains. With her newfound love, Savin continued the pursuit, completing a masters in the UK in 2020.

From the series I'll be late tonight, © Roxana Savin.

“Making this series was therapy, a way to make sense of that time in my life,” she adds. “We were supposed to leave Russia in 2019 for my husband’s job, but chose to stay so I could complete the book,” she explains. “These feelings are not discussed – women face expectations to be caregivers and homemakers, with an ‘appropriate’ feminine behaviour constantly being displayed.” Savin recalls administration-run beauty salons trips. “I felt pressured to conform to a stereotypical gender role, which put a disproportionate emphasis on beauty as essential to womanhood, and on the role of women as mothers and homemakers.”

From the series I'll be late tonight, © Roxana Savin.

The home is most often seen as a place of safety, security, and warmth. This is a far cry from the coldness found in I’ll be late tonight. There is a hanting liminality to the images, many families leaving their homes unfurnished, their stay only temporary. Domestic interiors become hostile and claustrophobic; open white spaces and barren exteriors make the town feel alien. Savin toys with this alienation, subverting her role as homemaker. Her village is unwelcoming, uncomfortable, and uneasy.

“As a housewife, I felt invisible,” Savin recalls. “I didn’t know where the book was going to take me, I acted upon a feeling that I had to make the work. I had to admit some uncomfortable truths to myself.” Savin remade herself, creating a new identity under the title of artist. “This is my most personal work so far,” she continues. “I’m interested in photography as a form of resistance and agency.”

From the series I'll be late tonight, © Roxana Savin.
Isaac Huxtable

Isaac Huxtable is a freelance writer, as well as a curator at the arts consultancy Artiq. Prior to this, He studied a BA in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, followed by roles at British Journal of Photography and The Photographers' Gallery. His words have featured in British Journal of Photography, Elephant Magazine, Galerie Peter Sellim, The Photographers' Gallery, and The South London Gallery. He is particularly interested in documentary ethics, race, gender, class, and the body.