"Waiting" by Yana Romanova

In 2009, St. Petersburg photographer Yana Romanova took pictures of her sleeping friends who were expecting the birth of their daughter at that time. She liked the result so much that Yana decided to implement the idea in a photo series — since then she has captured 40 couples expecting children in a dream. At first it was friends, then friends of friends and acquaintances of acquaintances, and after Yana began to look for those who wanted to sleep under the camera's gaze in social networks.

Yana says that she usually came to the apartment of the heroes of the shooting early in the morning. One of the future parents opened the door and led the photographer into the kitchen. Yana was putting a stepladder in the bedroom, and she was preparing photographic equipment in the kitchen and waiting for the couple to fall asleep. In addition to the sleepers, there are many small but exciting details in the resulting frames — this is what Yana herself says. Cats, tablets, slippers, bed linen with giant roses or Star Wars symbols, stuffed toys and so on.

Yana Romanova says that she likes to document the life of her generation in Russia and in the post—Soviet space - the generation born before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now these people, including many of Yanina's friends, are raising or expecting children.

Over the five years of work from the project "Waiting" have been published in many publications, including "Russian Reporter" and Slate. The pictures have been at many Russian and foreign exhibitions.