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.

Rakovich Alexander Alexandrovich works as the chairman of the Society of the Blind in the Borovsky District. He lost his sight at 5 years old due to complications after the flu. He works in Rusinovo and lives in the neighboring town of Balabanovo, where he also does some business.

There is a daily quota in the production - 2400 pipettes per shift. The employees say that they have little work: someone fulfills the quota until the end of the working day and leaves home earlier. And the work week is shorter than the standard - only 4 days a week.

Alexander Alexandrovich dismantles the tree after the New Year holidays.

Visually impaired people come to the library for Braille books and audio books on flash drives. Sometimes there are literary evenings: a librarian invites a lecturer from neighboring town of Borovsk to read aloud the biographies of writers and their works.

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.

In 1942, the house of Viktor Sergeyevich Solovyov in the village of Prudishchi, Kaluga Region, was under the bombing of an airplane: his entire family was injured by glass. Due to instructions of the Society of the Blind, Victor ended up in Rusinovo in 1954. After the incident, he had residual vision, but eventually disappeared completely.

Belopukhova Natalia Vyacheslavovna lives in Rusinovo from her birth. Vision problems were inherited from blind parents.

Ivanov Sergei Valentinovich has no vision since birth: inherited from his visually impaired father. When somebody askes Sergei if he wanted to be sighted, he replies: «How can I want what I don’t know?»

Ivan Sergeevich Khripanov arrived in Rusinovo with his family at the age of 40 when his vision gradually completely disappeared.

Khanov Agadzhan Kakadzhanovich or simply Alec, as the locals call him, lives in Rusinovo since 23 years. He lost sight after an accident.

Table tennis Showdown for the visually impaired resembles air hockey, they only orient in the game by ear and touch. The blindfold equalizes the game between participants with residual vision and the blind.

— 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