This project is a tribute to my grandfather, Zelman Sirota, and to my family.

 

I was once asked: if I had another life, what would I take from this one?
The answer: my family.

​

Family, to me, is about emotional safety.

But it’s any group that embraces you.
It’s not about a traditional or conservative idea, it’s about what gives you the freedom to go and the certainty that you can always come back.

 

To imprint your family is to hold it together through time.

​

I grew up at Foto Sirota, a renowned portrait studio founded by my grandfather, Zelman Sirota, in Rio de Janeiro. He inherited the craft from his father, Nunea Sirota, who had been a photographer for the Imperial Court of Romania and fled to Brazil during the Socialist Revolution of 1917.

Upon arriving, he worked as a negative retoucher and, by 1923, was contributing to Vida Doméstica, an influential publication covering Rio’s social life. My grandfather absorbed this knowledge and carried it forward with sensitivity and dedication.

​

I grew up immersed in that world, surrounded by cameras, the darkroom, and the meticulous process of retouching. Throughout my life, my family and I were constantly photographed and filmed by him.

​

A deep sensitivity to image, drawing, photography, retouching, painting has always been an essential part of who I am.

​

I have an obsession for portraits, whatever that may mean for the subject being observed.

​

Portraiture fascinates me. It reveals "identity" in people, objects, and moments, while creating a sense of permanence, something the subject may love or resist, it can only be truly transformed by time.

​

​

I would love to paint your family.

​

Nina

​

​