The sea is rough | Book dummy

The impetus for this project was the technological disaster in my hometown of Berezniki in the Urals. The city was built in Soviet times on the field of potash salts that remained from the ancient Perm Sea, and almost whole town stands on the mines. As the result of imperfection of the extraction technology, Groundwater began to penetrate into the mines and dissolve salt. The vaults of the mines began to collapse, and the city began to collapse after them. Huge sinkholes have been formed in the ground in the city and its outskirts. Due to the sinkholes and crustal movements part of the city became an emergency zone. Cracks have appeared in many houses. People are relocated, houses are demolished — so the whole city is being slowly covered with empty spaces.

​

I see in this catastrophe the response of nature and powerful poetry. The earth dissolved the salt with the help of groundwater, and the Ancient Sea seemed to wake up, get angry and decide to put a man in his place. I was interested in the history of the Ancient Perm Sea and began to study the territory where it used to be. I immerse my photographs into the water of a salt lake left over from the Ancient Sea. Salt has the ability to crystallize, it is a time capsule (as well as photography). Salt creates its own imprint on top of the photo. It is my tribute to the sea and nature.

​

​

 

 

Self-published artist edition of the book contains handmade elements as the result of experiments with salt (cover, insert print).