Elmira Watts in the media

Russian broadcaster TRC "Terra" did this interview with Elmira Watts' at the exhibition granted in recognition of her UK MPA award in her home city of Samara in 2009.

Watts told her interviewer: "When I photograph I'm seeking to capture the positive in people's personalities, because I want to create positive images. Representation of the negative – war and problems – happens by itself in images that surround us every day. Positive images have to be consciously created."

Anatoliy Afanasef, managing director of "VolgoPromGaz", who agreed to sponsor the exhibition of the Samaran whose picture won a UK photography "Oscar", comments: "I think this exhibition is a reflection of life, optimism, and hope in the future and our children."

The exhibition included images of British wedding customs that are exotic to a Russian audience. And Watts' probing images of British childhood, which are richer in meaning when interpreted in relation to the contrasting Russian tradition of sentimentality in representations of children.