Although the photography Rhein II was made by the German photographer Andreas Gursky in 1999, the idea to apply the deadpan photography principles to the Volga landscapes in Central Russia came to the author only in 2013. The name of the series is echoed in the old name of Ulyanovsk city - "Simbirsk", where the project was created.
Stright Symberian
Project
Further...
Ulyanovsk (Simbirsk) is a typical Volga city located on the East European Plain.
The territory of the Volga Region is mainly flat fields interspersed with rare hills. However, abundant snows lying in Central Russia for up to 5 months completely hide any individuality of the place, leaving the viewer's attention only the lines of snow-retaining forestations that divide the fields sown with rye or winter wheat.
The complete impersonality of the Volga rural spaces resonates with Russian Nowhere project by Pavel Otdelnov through the lines of long fences - both in the villages and on the borders of urban industrial zones. The quintessence of the project is manifested with a lonely line of trees dividing “Simbirsk” area in the last work of the series.
The territory of the Volga Region is mainly flat fields interspersed with rare hills. However, abundant snows lying in Central Russia for up to 5 months completely hide any individuality of the place, leaving the viewer's attention only the lines of snow-retaining forestations that divide the fields sown with rye or winter wheat.
The complete impersonality of the Volga rural spaces resonates with Russian Nowhere project by Pavel Otdelnov through the lines of long fences - both in the villages and on the borders of urban industrial zones. The quintessence of the project is manifested with a lonely line of trees dividing “Simbirsk” area in the last work of the series.
© Valery Romanov photography, 2022
