SIBERIA In the Eyes of Russian Photographers Leah
Bendavid-Val
Viktor Akhlomov, Tyumen region, 1961 [Photographers were on
hand to photograph the first gushing oil well in Siberia.]
Alexander Gronsky, Lena River, near Yakutsk, Sakha Republic,
October 2007 [Russian photographers, now no longer isolated, are
part of the international photo community.]
August Karovich Gofman, Yakuts, from album Irkutsk and
Vicinity, 1865-8 [This very early photograph is in the collection
of the State Historical Museum, Moscow.]
Innokenty Ignatievich Pavlovsky Convicts, Duiskaya Jail,
Sakhalin Island, 1890 [Anton Chekhov collected this photo &
others when he traveled 6,000 miles to Sakhalin to examine the
Russian penal system. His journey took 11 weeks. He was 30 yrs. old
and had tuberculosis.]
Vasily Shumkov, Gulag Plank beds of Canyon camp prisoners,
Kolyma, Magadan Region, 1991 [photographers could not explore
crumbling gulag structures until many years after Stalin
died.]
Alexander Tyagni-Ryadno, Krasnoyarsk Territory, 2001 [Pollution
from the Norilskiy Nickel Plant permeates this memorial to Gulag
Prisoners.]
Dmitri Debabov, Concert in Cape Lopatka, Chukotka, 1936 [In
this photo Russian performers bring culture to indigenous people.
Socialist Realist photography was intended to portray expected
future realities, not current facts.]
Vladimir Sokolayev, Metallurgical Plant, Novokuznetsk, 1976
[Former prisoners with no money were hired to work in Siberian
factories. Photographer V. Sokolayev says the floor was so hot you
could boil water for tea on it.]
Vladimir Sokolayev, Metallurgical Plant, Novokuznetsk, 1979
[Sokolayev wasnt in danger when he made pictures of the plant but
he couldnt get his photographs published. One perspective worker
told a supervisor,If I kill you I can go back to prison where there
is pure air to breathe.]
Sergey Potapov, Platinum Strip, Kamchatka, 2000 [In vast
Siberia there is little concern about depleting the land. And there
are uncounted beautiful vistas in Siberia but there is no tradition
of landscape photography. this is now beginning to change.]
Pavel Bezrukov, Homage to Saint Ivan Kratchtatski, Village of
Poteryaevka, 2008 [Long ago Old Believers migrated to Siberia where
they found religious freedom not possible in western Russia.]
Pavel Bezrukov, Poteryaevka, Village near Barnaul, 2008
[Children Bathe Outdoors on Epiphany, January 19th.]
Vladimir Semin, Chukchi Whale Hunt, Inchoun, Chukotka, 1989
[Semin was driven to photograph remote indigenous peoples who he
felt lived a purer life than westerners. Vast Siberia has an impact
on your state of mind, he says.]
Andrey Shapran, Suicide, 2005 [A 20-year-old Chukchi woman
committed suicide because she was rejected by her lover.]
Andrey Shapran, Funeral, Suicide, Kamchatka, 2005 [Shapran
photographed the cremation on his first day in this Chukchi
settlement.]
Sergei Maximishin, Indigirka River, Sakha Republic, Yakutia,
2010 [The discovery of oil and minerals on village lands have
displaced native populations. Intermarriage and assimilation are
leading to the disappearance of indigenous cultures.]
Anastasia Rudenko, Krasnoyarsk, November 2010 [These women
belong to the central Siberian Society of Walruses. They happily
posed for Rudenko who was there on assignment to cover another
topicSiberian political extremists.]
Alexander Gronsky, Komsomolsk-na-Amure, 2006 [Gronsky uses his
cameria to explore how the geography in which people live shapes
their emotions and behaviors.]
Sergei Maximishin, Oymyakon, 2007 [Oymyakon is the coldest
settled place in the world. The nomads who roamed this region were
forced to settle by Soviet authorities.]
Sergei Maximishin, Vladivostok, 2009 [Maximishin lives in Saint
petersburg. This photograph seems to demonstrate the pleasure he
describes when photographing Siberia.]
Sergei Maximishin, Krasnokamensk, March 2006 [Maximishin
photographed the cover for our book.]
