16 frames · Central Russia · 1996–present

Middle Light

There is nothing to look at here. No mountains, no cliffs, no horizon worth the journey — only the middle belt of Russia: field, forest, river and a low sky, the same for a thousand kilometers.

The place itself means nothing: most of these frames have no titles, and they need none. All that matters is light and air. Spring water stands among the trees, fog erases form, frost brings it back, snow turns a field into a clean surface without scale — and half an hour later all of it is gone.

People don't come here; they live here, and so they see not a view but a state. This series is about light that was dealt the most ordinary land there is.

View the series

A birch grove in mist near Mendeleyevo, Moscow region, with meltwater and patches of snow in early spring — 01 / 16

Yellow coltsfoot flowers on a tussock, with the setting sun in mist behind, central Russia — 02 / 16

A lone tree in pink morning mist, central Russia — 03 / 16

A person on a jetty by a sailboat in morning fog on the Oka River — 04 / 16

A double rainbow over a bend of the Klyazma River and a meadow in evening light after a storm — 05 / 16

Silhouettes of two ducks on the rippling water of a lake reflecting the evening sky, central Russia — 06 / 16

Sunset over a wide lake, with streaks of cloud and reeds along the shores, central Russia — 07 / 16

A spruce forest in mist, with a fallen birch on rust-coloured needles and leaves in autumn, central Russia — 08 / 16

A forest path covered in fallen leaves, with the sun breaking through the morning haze in autumn, central Russia — 09 / 16

A bend of a duckweed-covered stream among autumn trees under a blue sky, central Russia, panorama — 10 / 16

Blades of grass covered in needle-like hoarfrost, close-up — 11 / 16

A fallen oak leaf and green blades of grass frozen into ice, close-up — 12 / 16

A spruce forest under the first snow, with a path between the trunks, central Russia — 13 / 16

Frost-covered trees and pines in freezing fog above a snowy field under a peach-coloured sky — 14 / 16

Soft waves of snow with blue shadows — 15 / 16

Tall grass in the last rays of the sun in front of the dark outline of a shed, central Russia, black and white — 16 / 16

About the series

Landscapes of central Russia, photographed in the Moscow region and in the valleys of the Klyazma and Oka rivers (1996–present). The series draws on frames from different years: from black-and-white 35 mm film of the late 1990s and medium-format 6×6 negatives of the 2000s to recent work. There are no famous views or landmarks here. It is ordinary land: birch groves, fields, river bends, fog over a winter field, light at dawn and at dusk, the states of weather and season.

The current sequence of 16 frames is an interim summary of an open-ended project that is still going.

Works from the series available as prints

Niagara Falls almost hidden by its own spray, with birds flying over the river

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