Michael Regnier about this assignment

This is excellent work!!! One of my favorites so far. I think you have picked your subject particularly well since the brief was very wide and not very specific but you have managed to find something that really addresses all sorts of issues while at the same time always following once very strong concept - the place of origin which we asked you to think about in this subject. I like the fact that you have really analyzed this idea and actually turned it upside down since most (if not all) the people in your pictures actually don't come from Moscow and don't have their place of origin in the location where you have photographed them! This is really a very clever and thought-provoking way of using the "place of origin" idea photographically. You've also managed to tell a very strong story and address something that actually isn't there (their real places of origin) in a very simply, yet very evocative visual language with the simple, candid portraits of the people and, very interestingly, their view outside their window which is their "connection" with their new environment...! The images really work! Some other people on the workshop have done diptychs in some assignments. Usually they worked quite nicely - but with your work this could have worked even more strongly since these images really work together. I also like the fact that you have not been too 'strict' with the way you photographed the people and their views out of the window so every single view out the window is a very different image - different time, different atmosphere, etc. This is really excellent work, which you’ve made in such a short time, and there's a real feeling of involvement with the people in your pictures, which is so incredibly important in strong, traditional documentary photography that really tells a story!! Well done! I think this sort of piece could really work as an exhibition as well because the images are detailed, yet simple, complex yet easy to read.... And in addition to everything you've addressed the social/political issue of the fact that almost 1/3 of Moscow residents are not "legal" which is another story altogether but there is an element of this in your pictures! Excellent work!