OR EDU

This photostory is about adult people playing games of live action (a
live action role-playing game (LARP), is played more like
improvisational theatre. Instead of describing their characters'
actions, participants act out their characters' actions, often in
costume. Further, the players' environment is used to represent the
imaginary environment of the game world)
These people on my photographs grew up playing such kind of games.
When they were in their teens they dressed in home curtans and
fighting with wooden swords. Now they have families and jobs, wear
rather expensive historical and fantasy clothes and come to forest
where games usually take plese by their own cars.
I asked several players come to their own workplaces in their
favourite LARP-dresses and become some character of their choice. The
idea of this story is that everyone must have something of their own,
something special, something that forces our hearts beat faster and
something that helps us to move on - without anyone's conviction and
prejudice.

All people wait in a different way.Especially when they are going to have a baby. To begin with - being ready to give birth to a child is in a woman's nature. Once she got pregnant woman is ready to become a mother. Usually this force is stronger then all thoughts and hesitations, and during pregnancy her mind changes as well as her body.But when it comes to a man there is always a question. Hormones don't effect his behaivior and there is no little life growing inside him during 9 month. Is waiting for a child social or natural for a man in our world? What is special in his waiting?All pictures in this project were made during early morning when couples are sleeping or drowsing, and don't really care about their appearance and one can see thier attitude to each other and to this little miracle that is growing inside their family. This work is still in progress and I hope to make a book out of it next year.

Several hundred people a year suddenly vanish in big cities of Russia. I follow their steps trying to understand what could happen with all these people and why our familiar city becomes the scariest place in the world when we don't know why those we love have been lost without reasons.

This project will be presented in several different ways: as a photographic story, a multimedia project and a special website in which several multimedia slideshows about personal stories of such kind of investigations will be presented along with all usuful information about what you can do if someone close to you disappeared.

Maaväci, "Peole of the Land", one of the names of vaddjalain or vod', the entire nationality which inhabited the land between lake Chudskoe and the Finnish Gulf. These people are one of the oldest indigenous peoples of Russia and right now there are only 15 old men and women live in two small villages in the district of Ust-Luga. During the World War II they were departured from their own land to Finland, after a year of staying they were allowed to come back but live in far districts of Russia. They came to their villages only after the death of Stalin. They were forced to keep secret their origin and language, and almost everybody considered them to be "public enemies". But vod' manage to save their culture and at the beginning of the 21 century started to talk, take part in linguist investigations and communicate with ethnographers. Mostly bacause of the big federal port was going to appear in one kilometer form their houses and a lot of illegal forest coupes started around the village, and the only way to stop it was to make it public. Activists organized two museums of vaddja culture, one after another, with old vaddja houseware things and albums of early 20th century photographs of their mothers, fathers, grandparents and other relatives, people who died many years ago. But both of these museums were burned after the village started to complain and ask for help. Right now these people still afraid to name their nationality, being sure the government can change and they can be departured again. It's not so far from the truth, but not because of the national question - the port is going to grow and all the village will be send to another district, away from their land in which dozens of generations of vaddja grew up. On these pictures vaddja people pose on white background like thier parents did on portraits destroyed by fire, but also one can see the real background in which they live now. In their hands last houseware things left from thier parents - special vaddja fishing and agriculture equipment, mittens with unique patterns, portrait of mother and father, - everything that reminds them to whom they belong.