The Story Within the Portrait
The Others
“
In a quiet studio, a single spotlight cut through the darkness. A chair stood at its center, draped in fabrics. One by one, the actors stepped into the light — no lines to speak, no stage to cross, only the unspoken stories in their eyes.
“The Others” is a series of artistic portraits where each frame becomes a miniature play. Without dialogue or movement, every image tells a story through expression, gesture, costume, and carefully chosen objects.
Fine Art Photographer
Kseny Duke creates photographs the way a painter approaches canvas — with patience, precision, and a clear vision. For more than ten years, she has been developing her own language in fine art portraiture, where every frame is built like an architectural structure: measured, intentional, and complete. Her images do not chase moments; they construct worlds. Each portrait is a carefully staged composition, where light, form, and concept converge to tell a story that unfolds slowly, like a work of art meant to be studied and remembered.
Photo gallery
From the author, Kseny Duke
“
I had long carried an idea — to create a series of artistic portraits that tell an entire story in a single frame. Without words or movement — only through facial expression, pose, clothing, and props — to convey a thought, a metaphor, an inner world. From this vision, the concept of the project was born: a series of portraits where each one becomes a miniature performance.
I wanted to find subjects unafraid of the camera, unafraid to express themselves, to act, to exaggerate, or, on the contrary, to reveal something true. And who better than theatre actors to embody this? That’s how I found the perfect collaborators for my project — the actors of the Fool House Art Collective.
The portraits you see are the result of our shared immersion into characters, ideas, and meanings. Sometimes we touch on eternal themes; sometimes we simply play. But in every frame, there is truth — even if it’s disguised as fiction.
This project is about the person as an image, and the image as a reflection of the inner self. About how, in a single frozen moment, an entire story can live.