Vorkouta

27 November 2015   •  
Written by Marie Moglia
Vorkouta

Jef Bonifacino

Spring 2015. Jef heads to the easternmost town of the European continent, to the north of the Ural Mountains: Vorkuta. A former gulag, the Soviet government sent prisoners there to tap the coal produced in the mines. Time has taken its toll, there’s no coal left and still no road to get there. Vorkuta is today an abandoned city where inhabitants’ lives slowly follow their own course.

La chasse près des anciennes mines. Terre et charbon se confondent. C’est la nuit, il fait plus froid, mais il fait jour.
Après l’avoir trempée dans l’eau bouillante, il va falloir maintenant plumer, vider, cuisiner et manger cette oie !
Natalia est une amie de Danil, mais elle en veut à Micha qui n’a pas réussi à faire acquitter son mari bandit. Micha était son avocat, sans lui, ce ne sont pas treize, mais vingt ans de prison qu’il aurait eu.
Retour à Vorkouta dans la voiture de Danil. La route de Vorkouta tourne en rond, il faut attendre l’été pour les 4×4, ou l’hiver en moto neige, afin de pousser la balade vers l’océan arctique ou les monts Oural.
Printemps à Vorkouta
Chez Micha un ami de Danil, à Vorgachor. Micha m’explique que les générations précédentes avaient un piano dans leur salon, mais de nos jours, on a une guitare.
Pause cigarette entre deux suées à la bagna. Le soleil ne se couche pas pendant l’été et reste longtemps près de l’horizon.
Un gamin devant la rivière Vorkouta, qui donne son nom à la ville. Elle longe les immeubles à l’Ouest et sépare la nouvelle ville de l’ancien quartier Rudnik, le cœur historique.
Palais de la culture de Vorgachor. Vorkouta est le quartier principal d’un ensemble de quatorze quartiers qui se succèdent le long d’un anneau de route de 56 kilomètres. Ce cercle fermé est la seule route.

Images by © Jef Bonifacino

Explore
Instagram selection #312
Instagram selection #312
Through portraits or landscapes, the artists of our Instagram selection #312 never stop experimenting. All of them seek new textures and...
24 August 2021   •  
Written by Joachim Delestrade
Salvador Dalí, lava lamps and Rock en Seine: Emma Birski's Chinese portrait
Salvador Dalí, lava lamps and Rock en Seine: Emma Birski’s Chinese portrait
"Photography is a way of expressing myself and staging things that I imagine beautiful, but that I will never see in real life," Emma...
18 August 2021   •  
Written by Finley Cutts
Instagram selection #310
Instagram selection #310
Magic, fantasy, abstraction, humour... By playing with genres and emotions, the photographers of our Instagram selection #310 highlight...
10 August 2021   •  
Written by Fisheye Magazine
Readers picks #352
Readers picks #352
Both passionate about the photographic medium since childhood, Samantha Lomprez and Margot Gremillon – our readers picks #352 – find in...
09 August 2021   •  
Written by Lou Tsatsas
Our latest articles
View all articles
Readers picks #355
Readers picks #355
Alexander Kaller and Stephen Sillifant, our readers picks #355, both escape the frenzy of our world to produce peaceful images – a...
30 August 2021   •  
Written by Fisheye Magazine
British seaside, round animals and Céline Sciamma: Max Miechowski's Chinese portrait
British seaside, round animals and Céline Sciamma: Max Miechowski’s Chinese portrait
Trained as a musician, British artist Max Miechowski turned to photography after a long trip to Southeast Asia. Portraits...
25 August 2021   •  
Written by Lou Tsatsas
Instagram selection #312
Instagram selection #312
Through portraits or landscapes, the artists of our Instagram selection #312 never stop experimenting. All of them seek new textures and...
24 August 2021   •  
Written by Joachim Delestrade
The labourer who turned mud into silver
The labourer who turned mud into silver
With Zilverbeek (Silver creek), Lucas Leffler explores the myth of a worker who made his wealth from the mud that lined the bottom of a...
23 August 2021   •  
Written by Finley Cutts