When you say it in Russian there is not much difference between two words: “spasatel’”(“rescue officer” or “firefighter”)” and “spasitel’”(“savior”, “redeemer”, “Jesus Christ”), but the connotations are opposite. Rescue officers usually come after something bad already happened,and often only carry dead bodies , basicly they don’t prevent tragedy, but deal only with it’s consequences. In original it’s called “The Book of a rescue officer”.The Book is an official document that all rescue officers in the Russian Federation get after their first certification. Every owner of this book has to fill it by hand, writing down all the accidents he was involved with as a rescue officer throughout his career. It becomes a sort of a lifetime experience record of seeing people suffering and dying almost every day. I used to be a part of a rescue officers team for 3 years, and I still make this mistake I say “savior” instead of a “rescuer”. “The Book of a Savior” is a book telling about your attitude to death when you see it every day, showing how rescue officers protect their minds and hearts from it and pointing out the places where it’s vulnerable.
Jana Romanova was born in 1984 in Russia, and got a degree in journalism from Saint Petersburg State University. Her long term documentary projects were selected for a number of exhibitions in Europe and Russia, in 2011-2012 her works were included in the Backlight Festival exposition (Finland), Encuentros Abietros (Argentina) and Fotovisa Krasnodar (Russia). She got several prizes and honorable mentions around the world, such as PDN Photo Annual (USA) in 2011 and Photography Book Now by Blurb 2011 in documentary category. Her works are represented by Anzenberger Gallery (Austria) and LookOut gallery (Poland). In 2011 she became a teacher of documentary photography at the Faculty of Photojournalism in Saint Petersburg.
