Posts Tagged "russia"
Nikita: Voronezh Street Musician
Nikita was talking with a police officer, a girlfriend at his side, when I saw him on a Main Street in Voronezh in central Russia. The street musician, armed with a guitar and microphone, had angered either a store owner or resident on the street and the officer was asking him to move. As he collected his stuff, I chatted with him. He said he rode a motorbike around town, enabling him to avoid the bad traffic in the city. He hoped to upgrade to a Honda and said he would like to open his own motorcycle repair shop. Nikita was talking with a police officer, a girlfriend at his side, when I saw him on a Main Street in Voronezh in central Russia. The street musician, armed with a guitar and microphone, had angered either a store owner or resident on the street and the officer was asking him to move. As he collected his stuff, I chatted with him. He said he rode a motorbike around town, enabling him to avoid the bad traffic in the city. He hoped to upgrade to a Honda and said he would like to open his own motorcycle repair shop.
Alexei: Russian with Spanish Roots (2)
I asked Alexei, the brutual death metal musician, if he was from Moscow. He said yes, but that he wasn't 100% Russian. I expected him to say Ukrainuan, Bulgarian or some other East European background. He said he was part Spanish and that thise roots go back to his great grandparents, communists who first fought Franco in the 1930s before coming to the Soviet Union to fight Nazi Germany.
Andrei: Voronezh Street Musician
Russia Street Musician Series: Andrei strumming his guitar as people walk by him in the Voronezh street underpass.
Andrei was playing a guitar in a pedestrian underpath below one of Voronezh's main roads. He said he lives in the suburbs and studies math and physics. He said he may become a teacher
Zhenya: Street Musician Near Kremlin
Zhenya was taking a cigarette break when I saw him with his red guitar in a side street a stone's throw from Red Square. He said he was born in Ukraine and then moved to a small town in Rostov oblast, near the Ukraine border. A welder, Zhenya says people in Moscow put too much emphasis on money and material goods and that society has become more divided as a result. He said he prefers small town life.
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 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.
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.
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 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, 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.
