During the four trips that they took in 2016 and 2017, Vincent Pérez and Olivier Rolin traversed Russia from Arkhangelsk in the north to Astrakan in the south, from Saint Petersburg in the west to Ulan-Ude in the east. The photographer and writer reveal to us, like in a travel journal, a sensitive vision of Russia today. Vincent Pérez offers an impressive gallery of portraits of captivating intensity: carpenters, villagers, fishers, farmers tubing shoulders with Cossacks, artists, unemployed, some landscapes. As for Olivier Rolin, trying to “confront the words to the photographer’s eye”, he describes, recounts, gives anecdotes, descriptions, and historical data. In the end, the photographer’s eye and the writer’s pen meld together and, in the style of a travelogue, capture the atmosphere, though even sometimes when the poeinochnik (midnight wind) blows, the temperature of this country of ice and fire still remains largely unknown. In the journal Vosges Matin, Vincent Pérez explains: “Our rather incredible meeting with a shaman. We had a meeting with a sculptor and the shaman came for the purification ritual of the house and the family. Our host succeeded in convincing him to let me take photographs. I have him putting on his clothing, just before entering into a trance.”
Irène Attinger
Irène Attinger is in charge of the library and bookstore at the European House of Photography in Paris.
Vincent Pérez, Un voyage en Russie
Text by Olivier Rolin
Published by Delpire
49€
