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

Posts Tagged "streetportait"

Volodya: Engineer Turned Barber

Volodya: Engineer Turned Barber

Volodya studied engineering at a military academy and took up cutting his comrades hair. After leaving an engineering job and moving to Voronezh, he took up the skill he honed during his cadet years and now works for a classy men's only barber shop. 

Georgian Fruit Seller in Moscow

Georgian Fruit Seller in Moscow

She sells fresh and dried fruit from the Caucasus and Central Asia at the Moscow food market. Like many workers there, she grew up far from Moscow. She said she was Georgian, but raised in Abkhazia, and moved to Tblisi after the Georgia-Abkhaz war.

Andrei: Skateboardist (2)

Andrei: Skateboardist (2)

Andrei is trying to develop his own brand of street clothing and said he had a few items, like shirts, already made. 

Gleb: Skateboardist (2)

Gleb: Skateboardist (2)

As I tried to take Gleb's photo, two intoxicated men came over to ask for money and have their photo taken. They were rather rambunctious and Gleb found them funny. I took this photo as he laughed along with them.

Gleb: Skateboardist

Gleb: Skateboardist

The pins on Gleb's coat say it all - he is Russian and a self-proclaimed playboy.

Margarita: Moscow Artist from Baku

Margarita: Moscow Artist from Baku

Moscow Street Portrait: I must have passed her 100 times over the years without ever noticing her until she started chating with me as I took photos on Old Arbat pedestrian street. Margarita sells her artwork on Old Arbat during good weather; when its raining or snowing, she sets up shop in the busy pedestrian underground near Red Square. She said she grew up in a Jewish family in Baku, Azerbaijan and moved during perestroika to Moscow, where she worked as an architect, painting in her free time. In 1999, she joined the group of artists that sold their work in the pedestrian underpass in front of Red Square, a narrow corridor that handles more people on a daily basis than probably all the museums in Moscow combined. The artists have long since been cleared from that corridor, but Margarita still ventures there late in the evening when it's raining/snowing. I asked her what the most memoriable moment was all these years of selling paintings. She said that on her very first day in the Red Square underpass, a man - whom she thinks was American - bought a painting for $50, a large sum at the time. "That sale confirmed that I was an artist." It helped her earn respect from other artists in the underpath she said. She used part of the money from the sale to buy several bottles of Russian champagne to celebrate her success with the fellow artists. 
 

Refugee from Uzbekistan

Refugee from Uzbekistan

Moscow Portrait: Normally, I walk up to people and ask to take their photos. He walked up to me as I ate a pirozhki near a Kiosk and asked "are you a journalist?" I have been asked that quite alot over the years in Russia and I assume it is because I am a foreigner carrying a camera in a non-touristic neighborhood/region. He told me an interesting story, though I have not sought to verify it. He said he was from Bukhara in Uzbekistan and fled for fear of arrest. He said he often criticized his government, that one of his brothers is in jail while another is living in my hometown of Brooklyn, having received political asylum. He said he hopes to get political asylum in Europe or the US. In the meantime, he lives in Moscow working as a volunteer at an NGO.