Capturing Russia from white to black, north to south, east to west

Posts Tagged "photojournalism"

Victor: Singing for Ukrainian Church

Victor: Singing for Ukrainian Church

Victor was sitting on the sidewalk near a Moscow metro station singing softly as he played the guitar. A sign next to him said he was raising money for a damaged church in Lugansk in Eastern Ukraine. He said plays to raise money on his days off from work and that he has raised money for other churches in the past.

Sergei: Street Musician with Saw

Sergei: Street Musician with Saw

Sergei creates music using a saw, playing classical songs. He mainly plays in the underpass near Red Square. He said he grew up playing the guitar in Altai in Siberia and then studied the contrabass at university. About 15 years ago, he take up 'the saw.' The unusual skill has enabled him to travel abroad as well as around Russia.

Dima: Street Musician in Underpass (2)

Dima: Street Musician in Underpass (2)

Russia Street Musician Series: Dima was playing in the underpass beneath Tverskaya, one of Moscow's main streets, in about 0c (32F) temperature. He said he started learning at 6 and at 9 when to a music school. After high school, he studied at a technical college and worked in construction til he lost his job. Now, he said, he travels once in a while from the suburbs to Moscow to play for money. He said he likes 1990s rock. 

Dima: Street Musician in Underpass

Dima: Street Musician in Underpass

Another photo of Dima playing music as a city works sweeps cigarette butts and dirt around hit. Dima was singing a song by Tantsi Minus that translates roughly as "I am coming for you," a love song. It was coincidental that the woman just happened to be walking by as he sung that song. 

Valery: Street Singer

Valery: Street Singer

I approach the people I photograph 99% of the time. Valery is among the 1%. While taking a boring photo of a restaurant at night on Old Arbat with my tripod, he walked up and said he would like to ask a question. I told me to fire away. He said he worked at a theatre as a sort of handy man, but rock-n-roll was his life and he needed someone to photograph and shoot video of him and his group.
I was a bit suspicious considering the late hour, empty street and his dramatical behaviour, so asked him to sing some of the songs he said he composed. He sung me a song that might translate as 'Queen with a Top Rating'. The song is about a guy that falls for a girl drinking vodka from a bottle. I will post a short video of his performance.

Nikita: Street Musician

Nikita: Street Musician

Nikita, a beatbox performer, said he got into the music genre after seeing a video on the Internet. He said his father works in the lucrative oil and gas industry and wants Nikita to follow in his footsteps. Considering his father's background, I was surprised to hear that Nikita did his military service rather than find a way out. He added that he was discharged early after an argument with his senior led to a few knife wounds in his side.

Igor: Moscow Street Musician

Igor: Moscow Street Musician

Igor was playing next to the exit of a Moscow suburban train stop at the edge of the city. I askedif I coukd take his photo and he said yes if I gave him a beer or cigarettes. He asked where I was from and when I told him NYC, he said 'take me with you.' I asked him why he wanted to leave. He said people don't understand rock music here like they do in the US. Ironically, he was playing 'Smoke on the Water' by Deep Purple, thd favorite band of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Roman: Moscow Street Musician from Minsk

Roman: Moscow Street Musician from Minsk

Roman fit the stereotypical image of a European backpacker with his dreads, facial hair and guitar. However, he wasn't playing in front of a warm bonfire somewhere in Asia, rather in a cold pedestrian underpass in Moscow. Roman let me take his photo and asked for a copy, addressing me in a hippy fashion with 'hi man.' However, he didn't answer any questions, so was unable to learn something about him. But the social media page he contacted me from indicated he was from neighboring Belarus.

Misha: Cameraman

Misha: Cameraman

Misha, a cameraman, and I discussed playing sports in our youth. He shared an anecdote that reflected how unstable the 1990s were in Russia post the collapse of the Soviet Union. He mentioned that sport clubs or teams would often form only to disolve a year later for a lack of funding, leaving young people searching for a wsy to continue a sport they started.

Maxim: Street Musician (2)

Maxim: Street Musician (2)

A close-up of Maxim, a street musician who plays rock music with his guitar. He said he lived and worked in my hometown of NYC in early 1990s doing home repairs/comstruction work. He also said he plays on the streets in Berlin, where he claims he can make as much as several hundred euros a day, several times more than he can make playing on the streets in Moscow.

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