Days of Night – Nights of Day

This exhibition is its Scottish premier.

Elena Chernyshova is a Russian documentary photographer. Self taught, she developed a passion for visual language during her studies in architecture. After two years of work as an architect, Elena left her job and bicycled from Toulouse to Vladivostock and back again: 30,000 kilometers, 26 countries, 1004 days of cultural, human and challenging experiences. The trip led her to decide to become a photographer.

This documentary project is about daily life of the inhabitants of Norilsk, a mining city north of the arctic circle and with a population of more than 170,000 it

is, after Murmansk, the second largest city within the Arctic Circle. The city, its mines and metallurgical factories were constructed by prisoners of the nearby Gulag, Norillag in the 1920’s and 30’s. With 60% of the present population involved in the industrial process, this documentary aims to investigate human adaptation to extreme climate, ecological disaster and isolation. The city sits on the world’s largest deposit of nickel-copper- palladium.

www.elena-chernyshova.com
www.flowphotofest.ac.uk