FABERGÉ. NIJINSKY AND THE DIAMONDS
Valery Katsuba for FABERGÉ Jewelry Company
2011

A Fabergé ring for Nijinsky illustrates reminiscences about the great dancer by his contemporaries. According to one story, Princess N., bewitched by the talent and beauty of Vaslav Nijinsky, presented him with a Fabergé diamond ring. Circumstances forced the Princess to keep her name secret and the diamond ring was presented to Vaslav by a man she trusted - Prince Dmitry. Thus began the dancer’s seduction by luxury and fame…
Such at least is the conclusion arrived at by Nijinsky's contemporary Anatole Bourman in his book "The Tragedy of Nijinsky", in which he relates how Nijinsky preferred the Fabergé ring to the amethyst ring given to the dancer by a good friend, which he had worn as a talisman for many years. Moreover, Bourman was convinced that Nijinsky had no qualms in rejecting the old ring and that he saw the diamond ring as a key to a new world of luxury and excitement.
This story was discovered by the current art director of the Fabergé firm, Katharina Flohr, and the editor of the magazine "Mir Fabergé", Claire Fouché. It was decided to present the story through a series of newly commissioned photographs.
In many reminiscences of Nijinsky – perhaps in all of them – and in people’s memoirs of their own lives, Nijinsky emerges as the beginning and the end of the story, as a symbol of the time. This gave us poetic licence in our interpretation of this particular story of Nijinsky and the diamond ring. Nijinsky is, after all, a legend, a legend almost as powerful as those of Narcissus or Orpheus. His life had all the elements of the great legend – power and talent,  beauty and money, loss of identity and the desire to regain it, glory and madness. But above all there were the dancer’s genius, beauty, purity and naivety. He was, it seems, fated to be seduced by diamonds. Through his renunciation of the amethyst ring he renounced his roots, he abandoned his innate sincerity and gave in to the temptations of the princess and her representative, and thus he entered on a new game of seduction. In this game, in love and war, there are no losers or winners. Therefore at the end of our story the temptress, who had wished to remain incognito, discovers herself. And in a dream, if not in reality, she returns to the dancer as he languishes forlorn to stretch out a helping hand, confirming that love is the most important aspect of life.

List of photographs

1. Valery Kastuba. Nijinsly and the Diamonds. Seduction
2. Valery Kastuba. Nijinsly and the Diamonds. Choice 1
3. Valery Kastuba. Nijinsly and the Diamonds. Choice 2
4. Valery Kastuba. Nijinsly and the Diamonds. Decision
5. Valery Kastuba. Nijinsly and the Diamonds. Obsession
6. Valery Kastuba. Nijinsly and the Diamonds. Dance 2
7. Valery Kastuba. Nijinsly and the Diamonds. Sorrow
8. Valery Kastuba. Nijinsly and the Diamonds. Redemption
9. Valery Kastuba. Nijinsly and the Diamonds. Forgiveness

Photography - Valery Katsuba
Vaslav Nijinsky – Grigory Pyatetsky, Mariinsky theater, St. Petersburg
Princess - Maria Sandler, Big Drama theater, St. Petersburg
Prince – Marc de Mauny
Art director of the Fabergé firm – Katharina Flohr
Editor of the megazine «Mir Fabergé» - Claire Fouche
Make up and hair – Yana Yakubenok
Costumes - Lexi
Light – Evgeny Sorokin and Yury Kachan
Decoration – Inom Mansurov Thanks to Mariinsky theater and to its press person Oksana Tokranova.