In Russia, people have a lot of prejudice towards people with mental disorders. They are not considered full-fledged people with abilities to learn and socialize, they stay unemployed. But there is a place where everything is different. Svetlana is a unique social village in Russia, Leningrad Oblast. This Сamphill gives...
Emil Gataullin: Mezen
The first settlements on the banks of Mezen River (Arkhangelsk region) were established in the XVI century by Russian explorers who came from the White Sea and pushed back the local tribes. To this day this area is one of the most remote and hardest to access in the Russian...
Vlad Dokshin: Living with HIV in Siberia
Says Vlad: Every hour in Russia, 10 people become infected with HIV. Today, our country ranks third in the world in terms of the number of new cases of infection (after South Africa and Nigeria). A million Russians are HIV-positive. Irkutsk region is confidently among the first in terms of...
Olga Kulaga: The Lost Town
In the 1930-es in USSR most Mologa-Sheksna interfluve area got caught in a flowage during the construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station. Town Mologa and 700 closest villages landed at the bottom of Rybinsk Reservoir. People had to abandon their habitable and some of them moved with their wood...
Tatiana Bondareva: Boys
Boys from 14 to 18 years old who committed various crimes including hooliganism, rape and murder serve their sentences in the young offender institution in Saint-Petersburg. The conditions of detention in such institutions are much better compared to a regular prison in Russia. For many of the boys, who grew...
Eduard Korniyenko: Lords of the Guns
The state-run school is based in the southern Russian city of Stavropol, some 150 miles from the Olympic resort of Sochi. It is named in honour of Alexei Yermolov, the famous Russian imperial general, and the institution itself is as military-influenced as its name. A highlight for lots of these...
Yevgeny Nakonechnyy: Gold Bottom
Russia, Astrakhan and Volgograd regions. Baskunchak and Elton are one of the most amazing and the most saline lakes in the world. Unique landscapes reminiscent of other planets. According to one version of the lake Baskunchak name comes from the Turkic "Main camp". Lake Elton in Kazakh "Altyn-Nur" means "Gold...
Ksenia Sidorova: Simplex
Says Ksenia: My project focuses on young people in large Russian cities who are running away from their daily reality, transforming into fantastic creatures of imagination, or simply identifying themselves with someone else. My heroes are reenactors, streamers, role players, saberfighters, cosplayers, reenactors of historical dances, strikeball players. They engage in"for...
Arne Piepke: Abkhazia
Abkhazia is a small region located at the black sea, bordering with Russia and Georgia. Once ruled by the Soviet Union, the region declared independence from Georgia after the collapse of the USSR. A conflict arose, which escalated in a war in 1992. The once called “Caucasian paradise“ never healed...
Sergey Nazarov: The Sands of Kalmykia
Arid regions occupy 41% of terrestrial land. The destruction of soil leads to economical problems of the regions. In areas of increased desertification access to water becomes obstructed, the agricultural market is decreasing, unemployment and poverty are increasing. About one hundred million hectares in Russia are subjected to degradation. The soil...