
White Sea Bestiary is a multimedia novel by Bogdana Vashchenko that blends magical realism with her diary entries. It chronicles the extraordinary creatures and mysterious phenomena she encountered during her expeditions to the White Sea, including events that often seem inexplicable and astonishing.
However, “White Sea Bestiary” goes beyond being merely a naturalist’s field notes. It teaches readers to appreciate the wonders of our world, encompassing demons, beasts, and angels. The book raises the question: is everything described truly real? As Vashchenko notes, “Due to climate change, monsters and amazing creatures have become rare, but this does not mean they have disappeared entirely. They have retreated to harsher seas, adapted to Arctic winters, and transformed from their former selves into smaller, yet still fabulous, creatures that you won’t find anywhere else on earth.”

The photographs by Viktor Lyagushkin that accompany the text enhance the reader’s belief in Bogdana’s descriptions, while the stunning graphics by St. Petersburg artist Denis Lotarev provide additional perspectives on the bestiary.
This project is called multimedia because the text, photographs, and graphics are equally important, each contributing its own narrative.
The **”White Sea Bestiary”** is available in three editions:
1. Regular Edition: 160 pages, size 156mm by 240mm, full color, glossy paper, hardcover with embossing, dust jacket, and gift wrapping sealed with wax, designed to keep the demons and beasts inside.
2. Coffee Table Edition: 160 pages, size 210mm x 325mm, featuring silver printing on designer paper Arena Bulk. Hand-bound, this edition comes in a hardcover with an embossed gift box made of Karelian birch. Each book is individually numbered and signed.
3. Handwritten Copy of the “White Sea Bestiary” (pre-order, only 5 of 6 copies left): This is a true work of typographic art, crafted according to the traditions of 16th-century book publishing. Only six copies are made, each by hand on archival paper measuring 36×52 cm.
- The text is handwritten by one of Russia’s finest calligraphers, artist Natalia Lotareva.
- Hand-drawn illustrations and original etchings by Denis Lotarev.
- Photographs are printed using the cyanotype technique on museum-quality paper, signed and certified. Cyanotype, developed in the 1840s, is a photographic printing method sensitive to a limited near-ultraviolet and blue light spectrum. The world’s first photographically illustrated books utilized the cyanotype process (notably Anna Atkins’ “Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions,” and John Davis’s cyanotypes created in 1848 from seaweeds collected on the Ross Antarctic Expedition (1839–1843)).
- A handmade cover and an oak storage box.
The book is guaranteed to last for 500 years.
For more information, please write to us at info at phototeam.pro.