Rusalka is a Ukrainian photographer and figure model. Because she had worked for several years as a figure model, Rusalka was not shy about posing nude when she first decided to do self-portraits after she got her digital camera. Rusalka said: “I think that my body is far from ideal in terms of form. But, from my training as a fine-art painter, I was familiar with the many nudes by Dürer, Rembrandt, Valesquez, and Raphael, so I thought I too could model nude.”

Rusalka also noted that not having to look for a model gives he greater flexibility to do figure work when she wants to experiment. “If I have an idea, I can work it while the idea is fresh, ” she said.

Rusalka says that the hardest thing about making self-portraits is the short self-timer delay on her camera. She has to arrange herself in a pose, then she sets the props aside, trips the timer, and hurries to resume the poses and arrange the props before the shutter releases.

This pages show examples of her self-portrait work in her small apartment studio.