Russia...Is there a country in Europe with more mystery and appeal to the romantic side of our mind ? I spent some time in Russia this year for a photo exhibition of my work in the town of Nizhny novgorod, 500km east of Moscow. The trip was also an opportunity to feel the pulse of modern Russia and to fully immerge in the unchanged russian-ness of its people and villages. This picture of blond children on a soviet-era sidecar motorcycle, with a woman and her dog at the cloth line in the background is synonym for me of authentic, deep Russia...
Nizhny Novgorod has it all. Astounding views on the Volga and the Oka, a Kremlin, beautiful, fully-renovated churches, still many pre-revolutionary old wood house, in spite of new buldings sprouting all over the town and its suburbs. This former merchant town (before the revolution) is at the crossroads between the Russian West and the Russian East.
Central Russia. I spent several days with friends in this small hamlet of maybe 50 souls. As true Russia as you can get, old log houses with banya (sauna) in the back in the vegetable garden, no road or street of its own, but rather a winding, grassy lane between the houses. A sheep flock here, hens there, and dogs and cats of course...the real life...
But Moscow is a world by itself, a really big city, even compared to Paris and its suburb. The metro is like always spotless and efficient, and you would spend weeks looking at people in the streets. In Moscow like in the other major Russian towns, you will come across the highest proportion of super models compared to any country in the world and as a photographer it makes you want to become a portraitist.
Back to the village. Is there a better thing for a kid to do in summer than catch butterflies with a net ? That's what Igor did, or tried to do at least, and he was running around with his net when I shot this picture. When he'll be a grownup later, This will make the texture of his best souvenirs, his own Russian summers. By that time, I am sure that there will still be many untouched, quiet villages like this one.
Russian cities and suburbs have plenty of these derelict soviet industrial buildings, abandonned kombinats, and housing projects. This is a dream land for a photographer, these places have this special beauty and feel of abandonned temples, and one day the Russians will remember with nostagia this long-gone era through pictures like this one. Personnaly, these places remind me the atmosphere of movies by the talented, nearly-mystical Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky, particularly
Stalker (1979) , and this page (by Kevin Wilson) I link to describes so well Stalker and Tarkovsky...
I discovered a Russian photographer,
Uryevich, who has a website with many pictures
on abandonned industrial sites. Terrific work. I'm jealous...
Russia is also a land of immense natural beauty and wildlife, with pristine water, flora and fauna, which seems to have escaped unscathed from the hyper-polluting soviet industrialism. On this regard, the vast Russian hinterland offers unlimited opportunities to the daring visitor who drives on side roads, to fall upon untouched gems. Russians living in the cities know that, and often keep a foot in this pure world by having a small house there, where they grow vegetables and connect to their roots again.
Tanks and other WW2 weapons are often permanently displayed near Russian landmarks, like here in the Nizhni Novgorod Kremlin. This is a favorite playground for kids, who climb under the surveillance of their parents on fighter-planes, tanks and truck-mounted kayusha-launchers.
My Russian visa...It's not that easy to go to Russia, you need a visa and you need to register once arrived in the country. It may have to do with the tense relations between Russia and the European Union. Europe's political bodies have often had a contemptuous attitude toward the new democracy, instead of leaving it grow progressively, and I think some people in Russia ressent it. I hope things will get better some day and that visa requirements will ease soon.
