Growing up, Kiliii Yuyan heard vivid folk tales from his maternal grandmother. Her concern that he remember his native Siberian roots inspired his extensive engagement with indigenous cultures, like that of the Yup’ik who settled in some of the most remote places on the planet, including Gambell, Alaska (population 700).
In 2018, as a way to build an authentic bridge between his photojournalistic work and the community he pictured, the artist proposed an art therapy program for high school students to help counter the excessive rates of suicide, alcoholism, and drug abuse in the community. He suggested that the students make papier-maché masks to represent their innermost feelings—ranging from deepest grief to greatest joy. He was struck when the students chose to be photographed in them, most often wearing the masks of grief out of doors and the masks of joy at home.

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