Separated by the Atlantic

The idea for the photo project Separated by the Atlantic came to me when I was digging through my photo archives. Then I discovered an unexpected similarity between two shots taken in the opposite parts of the planet — in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where I live, and on the East Coast of the USA, where I work. So I began to pair other photographs that I took in Russia and North America — most of them are in this project, which was originally produced in the format of a zine. By the way, I placed the photos that inspired me to create it on the cover.

I am a seaman and for the past years I have been working on a merchant ship that makes voyages along the East Coast of the USA and Canada. During my first port calls I was euphoric, everything seemed different from Russia, seemed like a parallel universe. Meanwhile, my camera lens was capturing similarities between these two universes. These similarities are not only in architectural forms and nature, but also in the ambient atmosphere that lies in the details. A wrecked sedan waiting for caring hands, houses that seem unwanted, surrounded by industrial facilities, lonely neon lights of night cities, deserted city beaches that spent off the summer season — you will see all this in my photographs.

Here is a project about two parallel universes that can still intersect, they are just separated. Separated by history, culture, politics. Separated by long hours of flight and weeks of sea passage. Separated by the Atlantic.