stpetersburginsixmonths - Tumblr blog

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Soviet circus

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A man who's warm cannot understand a man who's freezing

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'

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Laurent Weyl / Argos - Kokaral: Life restakes its claim (Kazakhstan)

*I know the photo-series is supposed to highlight the resilience of the Kazakhs, but the camels totally steal the show. 

At the entrance to Aralsk, this arch reminds travellers that they are on Kazakh territory. The Russians abandoned this place to the mercy of wind and snow.

Artist Statement:

Barely 50 centimetres of ice, just enough to carry the camel which pulls the sled and to support the hopes of bringing it back brimming with fish. When the ice is too thin, the men pull the sled themselves - this carcass of wood and fish fillets - or attach it to a motorcycle. They’ve stopped counting the number of times they’ve fallen into the icy water beneath. Today it’s -18°C. This winter is not cold enough for the fishermen. Jakslik Kinjinbaev knows it, although it always seems strange. Why would one hope for a colder winter? He breaks into a gold-toothed, complicit smile: “When it’s mild the salt prevents the mud from hardening. The ideal temperature is between -25°C and -40°C. Even the shore is compact and the ice is thicker than a metre deep. The camels can get across without a problem and there are more fish.” The fish, a type of turbot, approach the coast in winter, seeking warmer water. The cold is an ally. So Jakslik smells the air, looks at his dog digging itself a snowy coffin and concludes: “Tomorrow it will be cold.” 

Jakslik Kinjinbaev is the son and grandson of fisherfolk. He is one of the rare few who didn’t leave the village of Tastobek after the collapse of the USSR, when the last few to cling to the hope of a revival of the Aral Sea slowly deserted its shores. Jakslik only left his village for two years, to serve in the Soviet army. There he learnt some basic Russian, three guitar chords and a string of sad songs which he uses to hum his second son, aged 8 months, to sleep. His voice may distort the words, but not their meaning. For Jakslik, the Aral Sea is far from dead. It is his daily reality, his larder and his principle source of income, along with his herd of camels. He fishes and lives off his fishing.

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Beautiful photo's..

Kazakh

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So very impressive and beautiful

Photographed by Jimmy Nelson for his project ‘Before They pass away' showcasing tribes from all over the world.

The Kazakhs are the descendants of Turkic, Mongolic and Indo-Iranian tribes and Huns that populated the territory between Siberia and the Black Sea. They are a semi-nomadic people and have roamed the mountains and valleys of western Mongolia with their herds since the 19th century.

The ancient art of eagle hunting is one of many traditions and skills that the Kazakhs have, in recent decades, been able to hold on to. They rely on their clan and herds, believing in pre-Islamic cults of the sky, the ancestors, fire and the supernatural forces of good and evil spirits.

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Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder: Sweeping Views of Soviet Suburbs

Our idea of beautiful surroundings is rarely connected to Soviet architecture. But for Russia-based photographer Alexander Gronsky, there is beauty in the communist-style outskirts of Moscow. Gronsky’s camera captures the places where the city meets the countryside, areas that are not completely urban but they don’t belong entirely to nature either. The people appearing in the photos seem insignificant islands of humanity in this mix of unfriendly architecture and rurality. And there is something quiet and surprising in his photos, and yet uneasy. “I always enjoy these borderline and kind of undefined areas and I just wanted to present them in a very sweet and romantic way,” says Gronsky.

(Continue Reading)

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One of the most beautiful photo's I've seen in a long time..

Alexander Gronsky

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Harsh places beautifully captured..

Pastoral | Alexander Gronsky | Via

Gronsky’s camera captures the places where the city meets the countryside, areas that are not completely urban but they don’t belong entirely to nature either. The people appearing in the photos seem insignificant islands of humanity in this mix of unfriendly architecture and rurality. And there is something quiet and surprising in his photos, and yet uneasy. “I always enjoy these borderline and kind of undefined areas and I just wanted to present them in a very sweet and romantic way,” 

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One of the coolest postcards I've ever seen!

(via SovietPostcards etsy)

Hippie bugs work the samovar.

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(via Three Little Pigs Vintage Soviet Postcard 1985 by SovietPostcards)

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Loving this♡

Soviet housewarming postcard (1962) (via etsy)

I love it! So very 60s!

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Neskuchny Garden - Aleksandr Golovin

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Velvet Underground

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You will hear thunder and remember me, And think: she wanted storms.

Anna Akhmatova (via fleurdulys)

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Cheburashka! Is he a mouse, a bear, a puppy, or something in between? All we know is he came in a crate of oranges.

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