Photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva grew up in Tiksi, a speck of an urban settlement in Siberia. You’d think that a being surrounded by harsh gusts and frozen hills and spending days upon days without sun would make a kid melancholy, but no. Evgenia’s imagination enchanted the barren landscape and her isolation. She was happy here, until the Soviet Union broke up and her family had to relocate. Last year, a grown-up Evgenia returned to her home town under the Northern Lights and shot photographs evoking her childhood, using this cheerful girl as her stand-in. Spotted by English Russia, these photos show us a different side of Siberia, as seen through the eyes of a child who never grew up.
A cosmonaut. January, 2011. Photo credit: Evgenia Arbugaeva
Christmas carol. January, 2011. Photo credit: Evgenia Arbugaeva
Northern lights. January, 2011. Photo credit: Evgenia Arbugaeva
Wearing a tutu. January, 2011. Photo credit: Evgenia Arbugaeva
Ship cemetery. January, 2011. Photo credit: Evgenia Arbugaeva
Vanya and his sauna. January, 2011. Photo credit: Evgenia Arbugaeva
Weather balloon. January, 2011. Photo credit: Evgenia Arbugaeva
Imitating Jacques-Yves Cousteau. January, 2011. Photo credit: Evgenia Arbugaeva
A hill of blueberry ice cream. January, 2011. Photo credit: Evgenia Arbugaeva.
Playground. January, 2011. Photo credit: Evgenia Arbugaeva