Boundless Russia
in a wide-angle lens

Homeless people often face violence and deception on the street, they do not trust people and do not make contact well. I was shooting in the Teremok for 3 months. At the first time the homeless people were wary of me and reluctantly told me about themselves, but over some time they began to open up. Some people categorically refused to be filmed, and I respect their opinion.

I hope that after the publication more people began to help the homeless. Teremok always requires financial assistance to pay fees for registration of documents, medical care for the disabled and other needs. Also, the foundation always accepts natural assistance for the Teremok in the form of food and personal hygiene products.

I have always been interested in the territory of the Kola Peninsula — a region with a very harsh climate, but at the same time the most densely populated area of the world beyond the Arctic circle. It can be called Soviet America, where people from all over the Union moved in search of new opportunities. I drove 2000 kilometers on the peninsula, shooting urban landscapes and people I met along the way. Now it is a withering territory: cities are becoming empty, the resources they came here for are being depleted, people do not see prospects for their children and send them to study and live in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Poorly developed regions are a global problem for Russia. I want the audience to see these photos not on smartphone screens, but printed out in a large format, so that they can see the small details of the landscapes and get a better look at people's faces.

The main life hack is not to be afraid to communicate with strangers, to ask them to make portraits. The faces of the Russian people are full of concentration and sullenness, but this is deceptive. If you talk to these people, then in most cases they will be happy to let you take pictures and communicate to them. Of course, you will need to pass a small test for involvement in foreign intelligence, the police and other oppressors of citizens. But suspicion is part of our mentality, and this question is easily solved by honest answers and humor.

Also, shoot stories about Russia — this is the best country for a documentarian: there is a huge number of problems, beauty and unique people.

«Air Ambulance service» is my first project. I've been working on it for two years and I plan to continue shooting it. I started shooting the project as part of the expedition of the School of Modern Photography Dokdokdok to Arkhangelsk. Communication to the people and resisting my fear are the main things I learned while working on this project. I, as a person who was just studying photography, was afraid to call the chief doctor, and then the Ministry of Health of the Arkhangelsk region. At that time I had no experience as a professional photographer, no publications, no website. There were a lot of doubts. I could not answer the question: "Why would the Ministry of Health of the Arkhangelsk Region allow a beginning photographer to shoot a sanaviation?" But there was strong support from the school, the curator, and the people around. And also a great desire to work and hope that i will be able to shoot helped me to go through such tough time.

The openness of people, kindness, hospitality – this is something that is remembered for years. Even small things are remembered: a plate of soup, a cup of tea that you were given, the way doctors and nurses help each other to transfer the patient to the ambulance. This creates a sense of mutual support and respect.

There was a situation when the sanaviation team flew to the district hospital for a newborn child. He was lying in the box, and his mother was standing next to him in a light cotton robe, vulnerable and defenseless. She watched when the child was being prepared for transportation, and I couldn't help. The doctor told her: «The condition is serious, we will do everything possible to help him».

She had no tears, but it was clear that she was broken. I thought about how strong this woman must be to survive the fear, the anxiety for the child, the expectation,the unknown. This happened at the very beginning of my work. I remembered when I was a child, I had undergone a complex operation myself, which means that my mother felt the same way. It was then that it became clear to me that I was not in this shooting by chance and I want to see the finished project.

This is a very difficult question, because all the stories are different, and at the same time valuable. It is impossible to compare them with each other. For me, as a documentary photographer, history and personality still dominate the place as a certain scene, texture. It doesn't matter where, it matters who. And amazing people, inimitable stories, are everywhere, moreover, they happen very close, and sometimes with us. You just need to look closely — the beautiful is closer than it seems.

Project about happiness. Because that's the most important thing, and if there's anything worth creating about, it's what's important.

Perhaps the answer will sound pathetic, but I would like us to look around, perhaps understand that we live in a good place and at a good time. We create our own environment. Life is in the moment, it is now, it is in the details. Of course, sometimes you can see social problems on my photos. Let this be a reminder to us that these problems need to be solved, not postponed.

It is difficult to answer this question, because I do not do art. I just use specific techniques from it. The main motivator is to get the knowledge of the world around me. To do this, you need to turn on the music, go outside alone and walk for several hours in familiar or unfamiliar places with a camera at the ready. I just got interested in photography. If I could write or draw, I would probably start writing stories or paintings.

I think that every photographer is a chronicler of his time. Save the moments, stop the time it's like painting a picture. And, working in the newspaper, I carry an informative function, I carry news to people from the places of events.

For me, every trip is a discovery, a small adventure, an opportunity to show the life and beauty of our republic through my point of view. Such moments are not found in the urban environment, because here live completely different people: they are close to nature and live in a harmony with it.

Young people from the regions are leaving, everything is concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Since I made this journey myself (I moved from Murmansk to St. Petersburg), it is important for me to talk about my city, with which I have a connection. Such a project can be filmed in any regional city — my small homeland as an example. The Russian reality is that the territory is large, and we, unfortunately, do not know how to work with such a scale.

What I can advise myself and others: read more, watch more, study more. Be interested in everything in this world. This will definitely give a result.