Michel Turek: Siberia

(Hardback)

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Description

Growing up near Washington DC at the end of the Cold War, Turek has always been drawn to Russia as a taboo, almost verboten place. The project began in the winter of 2016 when he joined author Sophy Roberts as she pursued a three-year search for a historic piano in Siberia. Turek traveled to the region another five times, exploring the vast territory east of the Ural Mountains all the way to the Pacific. His images record a constant tension - sometimes bizarre, often unsettling - between desecrated landscapes alongside pristine wildernesses; between the lives of indigenous people and modern Russians; between worn-out infrastructure and abandoned towns juxtaposed with gleaming new cities pumping gas and oil. The journey takes him deeper and deeper into small towns and villages, into the arsenic green corridors of Khrushchev apartment blocks. The photographs have a slowness and a stillness to them. Each one is a fragment of a conversation, a moment of genuine intimacy between subject and photographer.

Reviews

Turek's photographs don't try to form conclusions. They are totally without pretension. They linger on the pause between words, the silence of a snowstorm and the stillness between trees. Above all, Turek's images create the space for us to question our fixed assumptions about what Siberia is and isn't, was and wasn't, then and now.--Sophy Roberts "Paris Review"
A documentation of the small towns and villages of Siberia, where slowness and stillness prevail...--Ayla Angelos "It's Nice That"
Michael Turek's photographs lead us into the depths of Siberia...In the midst of vast landscapes, Turek's images reveal the spectrum of communities that call the extensive region of Siberia home.--Megan Williams "Creative Review"
This publication gives a new authenticity to Siberia, touching that frail humanity that lives in a territory which is certainly frozen but not only by notorious historical events... the [Michael Turek] wanted to photograph what he saw as objectively as possible, without judgment, to share his excitement and amazement.--Costanza Francesconi "Pellicola"
Michael Turek spent three years photographing Siberia's most remote settlements. He was struck by the region's musical heritage - and its plan to build a drive-in theatre for tanks and tractors--Editors "Guardian"

Author Bio

Michael Turek is an award-winning photographer based in New York City whose work focuses on documentary assignments and personal projects. He is a Kodak Professional Ambassador and shoots on film.