Alyona Shilonosova (Russia)
«Dialogue of cultures is an opportunity to look at your culture and mentality from the side, and
also consider with colleagues the features of work in different cultures».
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Alyona Shilonosova

Street of blind

Rusinovo is a street of the blind and visually impaired in the village of the city of Ermolino in the Kaluga region. Until 1995, it was a separate village where people with visual impairments were sent from different regions of the Soviet Union.
In 1948, a simple enterprise for the blind and visually impaired was built here. The main activity of the blind was the assembly of boards for Rubin TVs. After «perestroika», the development of the village stopped and the construction of new houses and a rehabilitation center were frozen. The village was attached to the city of Ermolino, now it is a free-standing street five kilometers from the city, where people with visual disabilities also live.
Now the RUSiNovoPak workshop for the blind people is engaged only in collecting a medical pipette and is considered unprofitable for the enterprise. In a nearby workshop, people without disabilities produce cardboard, it helps to cover the losses of the workshop for the blind.
The blind and visually impaired live in several five-story houses, after them private houses begin along the street, and the street there looks like in an ordinary village. People with disabilities know well where and what is located, they independently go to shops, to the work, to the post office. Sometime sighted residents help, no one refuses.
Most of the blind in Rusinovo are elderly people who moved here in the Soviet years. Children were born with good sight and left Rusinovo. In total, 115 blind and visually impaired people remained in Rusinovo.
— What is the mission of a photojournalist (photographer) for you?
— I live in Russia and consider it's important to talk about my country, I have opportunities and tools for this. It can be an individual, a community or a phenomenon. We have a huge country with many consequences after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a lot has not yet been fully studied in terms of photography.
— How did you come to understand that your calling is a photojournalist?
— I consider myself rather a documentary photographer. Documentary photography is the study of a specific topic through photography with an immersion in the theme of the author himself, when as photojournalism is limited to a short time. I have no feeling that it's my calling. I just feel something and express my vision in this way.
— What do you think of today's trend towards digitalization of content?
— The wide distribution and accessibility of digital photography greatly affects the work of photojournalism - speed decides. Anyone can take a picture that is important for a story or an individual event, it's enough to be near and take a smartphone from your pocket. While a professional photographer, even with maximum efforts, he already finds the consequences of an unpredictable event.
— What do you expect from the upcoming Dialogue of Cultures?
— Participation in the forum for me is an opportunity to discuss with colleagues the trends and problems that journalism is facing in our country.
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E-mail: shilonosova.alena@gmail.com