Dreams from a Northern Country — Russia

Dreams from a Northern Country is a photo series inspired by Boris Pasternak’s 1931 poem In the House There Will Be No One. Between 2015 and 2020, I photographed across St. Petersburg, Moscow, and the Bashkortostan region near the Ural Mountains, drawn to the stillness and faded weight of the Russian winter. Wandering in the streets alone, I sought out transient moments, faces of locals, their hopes and prayers; shadows and spaces where time seems to pause.

There is no one in that house, Only twilight. Only one: Winter's in the drafty rooms Where the curtains are undrawn.

Only grey cold damp is sweeping In the emptiness below. Only roofs, the snow; nothing Besides the roofs and snow.

And the hoarfrost in the night Comes with storms of winter near. Conflicts of the long ago, And the sadness of last year,

Boris Pasternak, 1931