Photo Journal Monday: Sergei Belov

Krasnoyarsk, Russia, 2019 © Sergei Belov

All images and text by Sergei Belov

Nostalgia

A few months before I permanently moved from Russia to another country, I experienced a strange feeling of a foreseeing nostalgia for the ordinary views of the Russian reality. I could find no explanation for this haunting feeling. It seemed to me that nostalgia for one's birthplace couldn't come ahead of time.

Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 2019 © Sergei Belov

I decided, before my departure, to capture for myself these images of typical Russian everyday life. Just to make sure that I had a back-up copy of my homeland as I saw it shortly before leaving. I visited several non-capital cities: Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Nizhny Novgorod.

Novosibirsk, Russia, 2019 © Sergei Belov

On the last day, I put all these pictures together in one puzzle, and took it with me as material proof of my connection to the country that I was leaving deliberately having spent there - to date - the larger part of my life.

Novosibirsk Akademgorodok, Russia, 2019 © Sergei Belov

Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 2019 © Sergei Belov

Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 2019 © Sergei Belov

Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 2019 © Sergei Belov

Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 2019 © Sergei Belov