Zabereg photo project: Accomplishment

It took me 11 years to accomplish my personal documentary project about Northern Russian villages. My goal was to go beyond documenting the region at a certain moment in history: I wanted to show how the situation evolves with time. I returned to the same villages over and over again, year after year. At some point, I felt how from a total stranger there I turn into someone whose next visit is expected. The region has changed a lot since 2008 when I began shooting there. Many villages got empty, the remaining infrastructure fell apart, schools, daycare centers, shops, and clubs shut down, public transportation became unavailable. At the same time, I met young new settlers who came from the large cities willing to fulfill their lives far away from civilization with a hard farmer’s labor, and maybe to set a new trend opposing global urbanization.

There was a handful of main characters in this project: a group of elderly women all living in one village. By the time I went on my last trip in 2019, only two of them remained - Maria and Rimma. I stayed at Rimma’s and visited Maria who already couldn’t live on her own and moved to her daughter’s. Right after I came back from that trip, I was told that Rimma has left the village. Shortly afterward terrible news followed: Maria passed away. That was a sign to me that my project is over. It couldn’t go on without these two women.

I sat down to put together a book and an exhibition. With help of my incredible friends I was able to craft a stunning book and on the day of my 40th birthday I opened the exhibition at the Museum of Natural History, Jerusalem.
Here are the names of those who made it possible:
Ola Netta Levitsky - book design, illustrations
Eugenia Shraga - book editing, illustrations
Sasha Iudashkin - book cover
Eugenia Kirshtein - exhibition design

I dedicated a separate page to this project on my website, for more information click here: ZABEREG project