Photographers Blog

Russia’s untouchables

Denis Sinyakov

Feb 1, 2012 07:58 EST

By Denis Sinyakov

I don’t remember a time when Moscow hasn’t been flooded with them – migrants from Central Asia.

When I moved here in 1997 they were already here. They had started appearing more than 20 years ago, the time when the Soviet Union was falling apart. Some fled civil wars, but more often they were escaping the awful economic situation in their homelands. Not exactly an escape, but they came to make some money, leaving their families at home. The economic situation in Russia even now isn’t enviable, at the beginning of the 1990’s it was woeful, but none the less better than there.

Muscovites have got used to living with them, used to regarding them as low qualified workers, as street sweepers and lorry loaders, cheap muscle on building sites. People are used to calling them “churki” and “sheep” and not finding those words in any way offensive.

Quiet moment of glory

By Peter Andrews

I woke up on the morning of August 19, 1991 after staying at my friends’ apartment in Warsaw. I was on my way back from holidays in Canada and had just sold my car before departing to the Soviet Union to start my new job at Reuters in Moscow. Previously, I worked for the Associated Press in the then-Soviet Republics of Lithuania and Georgia as well as in Moscow itself where Reuters’ former Chief Picture Editor Gary Kemper and Moscow Chief Photographer Frederique Lengaigne recruited me for Reuters.

A neighbor stopped me on the staircase saying: “Do you know what happened in Moscow?”. There was a military coup and the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was overthrown by Soviet Vice President Gennady Yanayev. It seemed impossible to me, I had just left Moscow two months earlier. Nevertheless, I immediately arranged the first available plane ticket to Moscow. The plane was almost empty and the only people on board were my colleagues from Poland with whom I had spent the previous year working with in Vilnius. The atmosphere on the plane was tense, but full of excitement. The change was happening in front of our eyes, but not the way we were expecting.

Upon landing at the Shermetyevo airport in Moscow I went straight to the Reuters office which was then on the Sadovaya Samotechnaya Ulitsa part of the Sadovoye Koltso in the center of Moscow. We exchanged quick greetings and I was on my way to the White House, a building which then housed the country’s parliament, where everything was happening. The Reuters picture crew already working on site included Sean Ramsey, Michael Samojeden, Genady Galperyn, Grigory Dukor, and Viktor Korotayev.

In those days we were working with film and, as far as I can recall, Frederique was in the office all the time processing our pictures and sending them to the world. The atmosphere was intense and strange as there were thousands of people on the streets of Moscow protesting against the military’s presence in the center of the city. Sean Ramsey was taking incredible risks and getting amazing images, as did the rest of the team. Michael took a great picture the next day of Yeltsin on the balcony of the White House.

Armored vehicles were traveling up and down the center of the city with some trolleybuses burning. The next day was more peaceful but still intense with tanks surrounding the parliament building with hundreds of people walking in between them, putting flowers on the APC’s and waving victory signs. I was amazed to see my picture on the front page of the International Herald Tribune on August 21.

from FaithWorld:

Russian Orthodox take icy plunges to celebrate Epiphany

Tom Heneghan

Jan 19, 2010 09:44 EST

A man prepares to dip in icy waters during an Orthodox Epiphany celebration, with the air temperature at about -26 degrees Celsius ( -14.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in Pereslavl-Zalessky, some 140 km (87 miles) northeast of Moscow January 19, 2010/Sergei Karpukhin

A man gets out of the water during an Orthodox Epiphany celebration, with air temperature at about -24 degrees Celsius (-11.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in Suzdal, some 200 km (124 miles) northeast of Moscow January 19, 2010/Denis Sinyakov

A man helps a woman out of the Bazaikha river during Orthodox Epiphany celebrations, with air temperature at about -28 degrees Celsius (-18.4 degrees Fahrenheit), in the suburbs of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk January 19, 2010/Ilya Naymushin

Heads you win

These two headshots by Kai Pfaffenbach and Eddie Keogh from last night’s Champions’ League soccer final in Moscow between Manchester United and Chelsea show the joy of victory and anguish of defeat;

a defeat all the more bitter for John Terry the Chelsea Captain, right, who during the penalty shoot-out, slipped on the sodden pitch and miskicked the chance to seal victory for his team.  

For the victors, Manchester United, the rain became nothing more than a refreshing shower and Pfaffenbach shows team manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s exuberance completely undampened by the deluge. 

By contrast in Eddie Keogh’s picture of Chelsea manager Avram Grant, the rain seems to match the mood as he walks alone, defeated through the downpour.