Category Art
Published September 29, 2025
Wedding Day, by STOITAM, 2024
Stories of queer identities persisting in the face of struggle took the shape of heartfelt photographs gracing the walls of the Firepit Art Gallery in North Greenwich, London. ‘Youth In Resilience’ is the new exhibition by STOITAM, a multidisciplinary photographer based in London.
STOITAM’s ability to sense and discern universal experiences throughout changing environments allows them to capture the highs and lows of carving an identity in the modern world with an eerie precision. The artist’s work creates a safe space for those pondering the questions of identity and belonging.
Originally from Moscow, they consistently explore themes of queerness, youth and communal dynamics, regardless of the limits of political environments. STOITAM is part of MOROZ COLLECTIVE and have previously had their works exhibited across Moscow’s underground galleries and London’s Candid Arts Gallery and VFD Dalston.
Youth In Resilience spans years and continents. The exhibition comprises seven works, each finding a unique way to highlight how identity can transcend national and cultural boundaries, helping to uncover a universal pattern of vulnerability.
The photographs are separated into two phases. The first three, titled ‘Untitled, 2022’, ‘Fractured Tenderness, 2022’ and ‘Spit, 2022’, take place in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The art and the context create a remarkable contradiction. In the midst of chaos, rage, and worry that take over the mind when the unthinkable happens, STOITAM capture an intimately soft moment. The images offer protection amid turbulence, inspire resistance, and demonstrate how identity endures even in the face of terror.
Untitled, by STOITAM, 2022
The following four photographs, titled ‘Avon stroll, 2024’, ‘Queers & Chips, 2024’, ‘Wedding Day, 2024′, ‘Sisters in joy, 2023’ and ‘Untitled, 2024’ were taken throughout the following two years as the artist continued to explore how struggles for gender and sexual acceptance intersect with the themes of mental and physical displacement.
Each image is different, yet they all capture a moment of freedom that only truly appears when vulnerability is involved. Unapologetically themselves, the subjects exist in spaces, brightening them with their presence. These images push you to contemplate the idea of self as a whole. Does just existing in a space while remaining unchanged by it mean reaffirming your identity?
Avon stroll, by STOITAM, 2024
Both phases of the exhibition exist in harmony; neither one surpasses the other. They are a continuation of the same story, told through a different lens. They demonstrate a collective journey as well as the artist’s own journey.
As STOITAM move through the world, affected by the same subjects of displacement they so eloquently portray in their work, they continuously explore the struggle for self-realisation and the wonders of community.
The repression and trauma unleashed by the Russia-Ukraine war morphs into the struggle faced by the young people in the UK as a result of the rising xenophobic nationalism, racism, homophobia and transphobia.
The photographs are candid. They feel like looking into moments, getting glimpses of a world, of the overwhelming emotions we collectively face every day. Making both the subject and the observer feel seen, they are a place of empathy and acceptance.
Queers & Chips, by STOITAM, 2024
Each photograph is approached with care, and each carries an emotion. Whether it’s worry and fear or joy and peace, each work grants an immediate understanding, and unbeknownst to yourself, you begin to fall into the layers of STOITAM’s work, feeling, relating, remembering.
STOITAM’s incredibly sincere approach towards their subjects is further explained by their academic research into contemporary queer life. They are completing an MA in cultural anthropology, exploring the intimate and romantic lives of LGBTQ+ individuals in an environment where love and connection are often governed by technological platforms, and solitude and isolation are a devastatingly common experience. Walking among the ruins of this tech-ruled monotony, STOITAM seek to restore ideas of interiority, community and hope.
Sisters in joy, by STOITAM, 2023
By pure coincidence, the exhibition took place on the same night thousands of teenagers flocked to the nearby O2 to witness a live performance from Japanese artist Ado, whose work draws on the artificial Vocaloid genre of the early 2000s.
Her live performances construct an identity composed of holographic and animated projections in real time, offering viewers a visual mystery.
In an interview promoting her tour, Ado remarked on her Gen Z Japanese and international fanbase: “The unknown future fills them with anxiety, and even the prospect of a normal life seems stifling”.
This same sentiment rings true in STOITAM’s work. Through their lens, the anxieties and conflicts of Russian, Ukrainian and British queer youth reveal themselves. Both their work and the artist themself refuse to neatly organise the human experience and create art that is easily labelled, they would rather tell the truth.
