Little town Kich

The six thousand strong Kichmengsky Gorodok, simply called by its inhabitants Little Town Kich, is located in the historical Russian region’s northeasternmost province Vologda, and namely in its easternmost district. From Vologda, which lays about four hundred and fifty kilometers by train from Moscow, it takes another four hundred and seventy kilometers by bus to get there. Provided you want to get there at all.

From the small town some further dirt roads lead to the villages of the region near and far. These are dying villages, writes the photographer Olya Ivanovna, just as those other villages whose abandoned old photographs are being collected by the Black Ethnographer around Kostroma. Olya Ivanovna is collecting in the same way the faces and interiors, she is documenting life, as long as it is possible, as long as there is what to document.