Juried Exhibition
THE ABANDONED LANDSCAPE

One of my pictures, Apocalypse #5, was selected for the juried collective exhibition The Abandoned Landscape at the SE Center for Photography in Greenville, South Carolina, USA. The juror was Laura Campbell, Publisher of the Looking Glass Magazine.

Apocalypse #5 [Karabash, Ural]

The SE Center for Photography
1239 Pendleton Street, Greenville, South Carolina 29611, USA
1st - 25th April 2016
Reception 4/1  6-9PM

Выбираю Жизнь

Спасибо Крису - сделали мне #артистический сайт (ссылка). Выкладывать пока особо нечего, положила свои любимые картины, наброски времен студенчества и мою любимую #фото серию (первую, но не последнюю) о #жизни и смерти. В серии фотографии с #Тихого океана, ##Карабаша, и... #Подмосковья - жизнь есть жизнь и торопится нам некуда - вечная спутница согласна подождать...

WASTELAND II

Re-edited some pictures from the Karabasch series. Somehow black & white works much better (at least for me)... 

The mining town of Karabasch, situated about 1,800 km east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains, is one of the World's most polluted locations. A copper smelting plant is situated in the town since 1910, which is emitting extremely large amounts of pollution. 

Within 100 years, the factory has the surrounding area extended burned and covered with slag. Per year of operation, it encounters more than 180 tons of gas in the atmosphere, the back falls as acid rain in the local area back to earth. For decades, the soil in and around Karabasch is contaminated by high concentrations of highly toxic metals like lead, arsenic, nickel, cobalt, cadmium, copper and zinc, some of which exceed the maximum permitted limit for the two-to 150-fold. The iron content exceeds the norm by a factor of 500. In 1996 the town was officially recognized by the Russian government as a "ecological disaster zone", the UNESCO lists Karabasch as on of the most polluted locations on earth.

WASTELAND

The mining town of Karabasch, situated about 1,800 km east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains, is one of the World's most polluted locations. A copper smelting plant is situated in the town since 1910, which is emiting extremly large amounts of pollution. 

Within 100 years, the factory has the surrounding area extended burned and covered with slag. Per year of operation, it encounters more than 180 tons of gas in the atmosphere, the back falls as acid rain in the local area back to earth. For decades, the soil in and around Karabasch is contaminated by high concentrations of highly toxic metals like lead, arsenic, nickel, cobalt, cadmium, copper and zinc, some of which exceed the maximum permitted limit for the two-to 150-fold. The iron content exceeds the norm by a factor of 500. In 1996 the town was officially recognized by the Russian government as a "ecological disaster zone", the UNESCO lists Karabasch as on of the most polluted locations on earth.

BORDERLINES [I]

We used the holidays of last week for a "short" trip to the Ural (with a distance of about 1,900 km between Moscow and Yekaterinburg "short" is relative…)…

The borderline between Europe and Asia at the River Ural near Magnetogorsk

During our trip we crossed for many times the borderline between Europe and Asia. We visited beautiful places and locations which are more close to a vision of apocalypse. We went to many different towns, one of them more then 4,000 years old, another one founded just 80 years ago. And we got many impressions of this part of Russia, which lays on the borderline between two continents.

This is the first part of our journey to the edge of Europe…

Day 1

After a drive of about 1,000 km we arrived in the evening at Kazan. Laying at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka River, Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan. 

The multi-ethnic city is famous for Muslims and Christians living side-by-side in peace.

The Kazan Kremlin is a World Heritage Site listed by the UNESCO

Day 2

Driving on in direction Ural we passed through typical forrests, colourful villages and agricultural regions with former kolkhozes.

The Ural Mountains - not very high but anyway full of impressive nature.

We spent the night in a former Sovjet Sanatorium which is now a hotel but nevertheless has kept a lot of the "charm" of its former function. 

Day 3

While around Moscow it is already spring with green trees and flowers everywhere, here in the Ural there was still a lot of ice and snow around.

On the way to Karabasch. The Nature seems to be in best order...

Our target for this day was Karabasch, a mining town in the Chelyabinsk Oblast. Karabsch is concidered to be on of the most polluted regions in the world. A copper smelting plant is situated in the town, and its toxic waste has created extremly large amounts of pollution and serious health problems for the inhabitants. The averager lifespan of a male inhabitant is 42 years... 

More about Karabasch and the rest of our journey to come soon.