Beige of buildings against blue of sky.
















I can't read the rest of it, but the bold letters at the bottom of the sign say: "...and in the blockaded Leningrad." This was outside an exhibit of lilies at the botanical garden.




My view for the first couple months.

These are some of my final shots in Oregon. The roll of film extends from Oregon, through the flights, and ends in Russia. It was also a lab in Russia that gave me back these... unusual scans. At first I thought I'd be able to just take the strip of out-of-place image and join it with its counterpart, but when I tried this I found out that there was stuff missing in between. You'll see the results. Ah, the joys of shooting film. Mmmm :)




My trusty bicycle in my trusty alley!




I had my first Russian class in the first floor of this building.




The back door of the trashy club downtown that closed at 2, spilling its drunk, and loud couples and singles and weirdos onto the streets of Corvallis and the alley outside my window.




This was in Portland, shortly before my friend showed me a nice cafe that serves this dirt-tasting tea out of big white bowls.







My first photo in Russia. Seems fitting.

Today was good. For one, although it is Christmas (and a White Christmas, to no one's surprise), people here don't celebrate that today, so I didn't have to play the game where I try to skirt around the questions about my planned whereabouts in order to avoid friends' invites to spend the day with them and their families so I can just get shit done. AND, stores and things are actually up and running today so I could indeed get shit done. Double win. I bought peanut butter today.

For two, I met some for reals analog photography enthusiasts. As soon as I told these guys I was into photography, the gear started coming out. Cameras were pulled from backpacks, B&W film followed. A tripod was brought from a corner. The great thing is that they were at an English lesson. It's not like this was a photo outing; they just carry it all around with them all the time. Atta boys.

Rainy weather plus mood slump plus short days has equaled a lull in shooting for me, but my goal is to capture some of the sweet holiday lights before the holidays are over, and hopefully this unexpected meeting of photographers will be motivation enough. In the meantime, I just got back five rolls of film that I'd been letting pile up. Here's: the seagull my host mother feeds from her kitchen window; the friend with lovely freckles in her eye; the Beatles alleyway in St. Petersburg; and the statue atop the Alexander column, the posture of which I adore even though I am usually not into those kinds of things.

I should write something about Pussy Riot.

I visited the Cathedral of Christ the Savior this past weekend. It is huge, and entrance (like so many places in Moscow) required passage through a metal detector and bag-searching guards. For those not keen on memorizing names and details, the church I'm referring to is the one that Pussy Riot became well-known globally for protesting in. First, a short preamble to say that I have not researched this extensively, and just want to present some stuff as I have seen it (though my experience and reach is quite limited) here in Russia. Okay.

In Russia, this is overwhelmingly an issue of religious respect, not so much of freedom of speech. ALL of the Russians I have talked to about it think that the punishment for the crime was too harsh, but have negative feelings about the act and seem to believe that some sort of punishment was needed. My conversation teacher noted that Pussy Riot had performed numerous public protests previously, with relatively minor consequences then.

Basically, the whole thing is tied up in religion in a way I didn't realize before coming here. The place where the protest was held is considered a sacred area in the church, leading many to consider the trespass highly disrespectful to the Eastern Orthodox faith, and an interference with the religious rights of the practitioners there. Hence, "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" being the charge. One of the things that is difficult for me to comprehend here is just how wrapped up religion is with government. When trying to explain to someone that this thing is so odd for Americans because we have core values related to the separation of church and state, a Russian student said to me, "Russian government has always been tied up with religion. Always."* I am not sure if it's institutionally or culturally driven, but separation of church and state, de facto, does not seem to be taken too seriously. And it is hugely different being in this kind of culture.

*Note: I am not sure how this squares with the whole Socialist Thing. I seem to remember a partially-understood conversation or lecture in which a Russian said that in the USSR Communism was the peoples' religion, and after the fall of the USSR, the Orthodox Church moved in to fill the religious vaccuum left by Communism's collapse. But, again, an idea poorly remembered and maybe poorly understood initially.

I keep trying to imagine what a similar situation in the States would look like, but it's hard due to the many factors that are culturally unique to Russia. There is a strong respect and regard for one central, majority religion that is coupled with the kind of conservative culture that allows the existence of laws against 'hooliganism.' A lack of very strong participation in politics or social institutions means many are more likely to be offended by the religious disrespect than appreciative of the civic duty of drawing attention to the suspiciously buddy-buddy relationship between the Church and Russia's main political party. Wiki has a good section on the Russian public's opinion here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussy_Riot#Public_opinion_in_Russia.

Something that came to mind while writing this was the sheer amount of attention from the West this incident has garnered. Why with the quickness to point to "the other guy" and his shitty policies? A quote:

"For the British and US governments to get on high horses about Russian sentencing is hypocrisy. America and Britain damned the 'disproportionate' Pussy Riot terms. In America's case this was from a nation that jails drug offenders for 20, 30 or 40 years, holds terrorism 'suspects' incommunicado indefinitely and imprisons for life even trivial 'three strikes' offenders. Last week alone a US military court declared that reporting the Guantánamo Bay trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be censored. Any mention of his torture in prison was banned as 'reasonably expected to damage national security'. This has no apparent connection to proportionate punishment or freedom of speech." [Simon Jenkins, "The west's hypocrisy over Pussy Riot is breathtaking"]

In the same year as new policies limiting certain freedoms in the States I do raise my eyebrows a bit at the amount of media attention directed externally. Perhaps it's my particular interests, news sources, exposure, etc., but it seems like every turn in the Pussy Riot case makes headlines, while I only briefly heard about the law limiting protesting in the U.S. ('Anti-Occupy' law). And though it was in the news more, indefinite detention (provision of National Defense Authorization Act) still saw less screen time than Pussy Riot. Don't get me wrong, Russia has a lot of problems. But so does the U.S. And really, I'm disappointed that Russia's political issues seem to get so much more attention when I think it would be more beneficial for Americans to be more informed about what's going on in their own country.

This was basically my first week in Russia.








I think I done went and fucked up my favorite lens.

I'm back! I come bearing photos!






The place I took this film to get scanned gave it back all wonky-colored, so I had to color balance myself. I loathe color balancing, and the extra time it takes to do so is reflected by how long it took me to get these photos ready. So please give me feedback on the colors! I also doubt my monitor is properly color-balanced, so this whole thing is kind of a shit show... Enough of that; moving on!




The dacha was absolutely my favorite place as a child. Of the memories I have of my childhood in Russia, the majority are from there.














These things are fucking delicious. They look kind of like gooseberries.... At least, that is what I thought when I saw gooseberries at the farmer's market in Oregon. I was very disappointed. Those gooseberries didn't hold a candle to whatever this thing is.

Hey so



speaking of browns and blues

This is my first upload from Russia.

Rounding up the photos from right before I left Oregon.











The first time I fell in love with jasmine green tea was in Russia, eight or nine years ago. Maybe I have come full circle or something?




I took this photo solely because it reminded me of the time I worked at Michaels in high school.