Такая Полина

All about Polina

This is Polina Zimina. Polina is 17 years old, and has Down syndrome. She lives in Israel, dances, and speaks fluent Russian and Hebrew. Polina has a brother, Misha, and a newborn sister, Nina.

When it comes to her future and career, Polina says that her dream is to be a model. Polina possesses all the qualities to fulfill it: she is artistic, bright and intelligent. She is not afraid to laugh when she is in front of the camera. She has taste for clothes and she is able to work hard. We believe that Polina has a strong chance for great career as a model.

That is why we gathered together a professional film crew led by famous fashion photographer Lena Sarapultseva, who works for Esquire, Bazaar, GQ, Glamor and other leading fashion magazines. All the team volunteered to work on a charitable basis, and created the modeling portfolio for Polina. Of course, we will be happy to talk with any modeling agency or project, organize a meeting or send additional photos.

Portfolio

About the project

A highly professional team gathered together to work on a modeling portfolio of Polina Zimina. All of them volunteered to work on a charitable basis to help Polina fulfill her dream.

The process was full of difficulties and surprises. For example, the day before the photo shoot, a relative decided to give Polina a haircut, and cut out flocks of hair right on top of her head. Polina was afraid that the stylist would even refuse to work with her after that. Fortunately, a good stylist is not easily scared, and Polina’s hairdo turned out excellent. In addition to that, Polina was quite anxious about her outfit. What would it be? Would it fit well? Would it look well? In the end, everything turned out just fine. Polina looks gorgeous, stylish and unique in all the photos.

According to Polina, she was deeply impressed by the work of the professional team. She hadn’t imagined that a real fashion-shooting would be so cool, well-coordinated and fascinating, and how fun, easy and exciting it would be to work in front of the camera. Polina’s mother, her best friend, had told her two things that proved to be very important that day. One was, “Do not lord over your people too much, my princess.” And the other was, “Working as a model is hard work that imposes many limitations. Think whether you are ready for it”. The first professional shooting day of the future model Polina Zimina showed that yes, she is ready.

The Team

The Team The whole team that gathered to create a modeling portfolio for Polina Zimina worked for free in order to help the thirteen-year-old girl fulfill her dream – become a model, a very special and unique one. Here are the people who worked on the project:

"I had never dealt with such children as Polina so closely before, didn’t know what they were like, and thought they were quite different from us. Polina turned out to be very sophisticated, able to maintain emotional contact - and, most importantly, very pleasant. Of course, a lot was in a new way, not like at a routine photo-shoot session. However, it wasn’t not hard - on the contrary, it was easy and fun"
Lena Sarapultseva (Manakai), photographer
Fashion photographer, contributing photographer for Esquire, Bazaar, GQ, Glamor and other leading fashion magazines
"I had never dealt with such children as Polina, and she turned out to be very cool and very grown-up. She really got involved in the process and nearly began managing it. "Adjust my dress, please", "I can’t see the clapstick!" (We used it to mark the beginning of each photo shoot at the session). When I photograph children they often get bored and distracted quite quickly. I get a feeling that they have their own, some children's things to do. They get tired and fussy, and I have to persuade them to do something in front of the camera. And this girl just stood up and began to work at once"
Yakov Pechenin, photographer, owner of the studio
Provided the studio on charitable basis
"I thought that everything would be more complicated, but it turned out like a big game. I was afraid that Polina would be a little distracted, uninvolved, and it would be difficult to establish contact between the photographer and the model. However, it turned out quite the opposite. You know, many children, when find themselves in front of the camera, need additional motivation to desire to work. But Polina was totally different. She was a very involved and devoted model"
Andrey Gapanovich, Assistant Photographer
"I believe there should be more models like Polina, as many as possile. The better we know that all kinds of adults and children can be bright and attractive, the larger is our understanding of beauty and the better persons we become"
Linor Goralik, Writer, Fashion Theory Researcher
Idea, project production, content management, communication support
"I believe in Polya for sure. Not only because I love her, but also because I know how purposeful, determined and self-motivated she is. She will manage it, I’m sure"
Larissa Zimina
Polina’s mother and manager
"I was simply afraid to go to the shooting session. I had no experience working with special needs children, and I couldn’t guess what Polina’s reaction would be. I thought I was morally and emotionally unprepared for such an experience. But everything went easily and at ease. It turned out that she responded better than many of the children I had ever photographed. She is absolutely positive and lively. And more importantly, you can agree with her. And a capability to agree is, perhaps, the most valuable thing in a successful photo session. Polina has every chance to become a model if there are people around to support her. I think, if it really happened, it would be a breakthrough"
Alexander Chelubeev, stylist
"There isn’t any bitterness in Polina. It is clear that she is perfectly adapted to life. What amazes me about people like her is that in some way they are much more mature than we are. Polina is not an exception. She is a mature adequate person, easy to negotiate on working issues"
Olga Popova, makeup artist
Hairstyle, make-up
"When we only came up with the idea of this project, I thought: “That’ll be cool and unusual, and hopefully – useful”. And so it was. More importantly, all of us, the professionals who gathered for the project, suddenly found that our model was also a natural born professional. It was really cool and inspiring: if you are striving and trying very-very hard to achieve what you really want, success is inevitable. You just need to believe and work, and work, and work, and be gratified by success. Polina is just the model example - very motivated, and very grateful"
Natalia Goncharova, researcher and sociologist
Project producer, team manager, and content manager