New Empire

This work is a photographic project I have undertaken in the Russian Federation.

For six months in 2018 and seven months in 2011-12, I photographed architecture

and the use of public space, mostly within Siberia and the Far East. I also photographed many of the people I met either in their homes, schools or workplace.

I plan to edit the work into a photobook examining this region within the context of

the past ten years under Vladimir Putin.

The situation in Russia is now unique. Events that have unfolded in the last ten years,

both internally and internationally, continue to have vast ramifications upon the Russian people. The cost of living there has skyrocketed. Russia’s relationship with the West is at its lowest point since the Cold War. Yet the promise of Putin’s early years and the memory of his taking control of a country in chaos twenty years ago remains the

steadfast anchor of his populist appeal.

I was living in Irkutsk during the presidential elections in 2018 and my impression was that, as in the US, a great number of people don’t vote and are somewhat fatalistic about change yet are vocal and opinionated about what should change. There is a powerful and undying nationalism in Russia, the intensity of which I’ve yet to encounter anywhere. However, just as in the USA, I find the qualities of contemporary nationalism to be highly complex and nuanced

in terms of the influence of either country’s history and sense of themselves or ourselves as a world power.

© Victoria Crayhon - Pavilion of Atomic Energy, Moscow RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Pavilion of Atomic Energy, Moscow RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Irkutsk Apartment Complex I, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Irkutsk Apartment Complex I, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Condo Ad, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Condo Ad, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Cosmonaut I, Moscow RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Cosmonaut I, Moscow RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Guardians of the Eternal Flame, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Guardians of the Eternal Flame, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Flat Putin, Vladivostok RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Flat Putin, Vladivostok RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Tanya with her Grandfather's Picture,Vladivostok RF 2012 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Tanya with her Grandfather's Picture,Vladivostok RF 2012 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Moscow River, Moscow RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Moscow River, Moscow RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Victory Day, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Victory Day, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Sovetskaya Street, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Sovetskaya Street, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Hikers on Lake Baikal Island, RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Hikers on Lake Baikal Island, RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Maternity Portrait Session in Progress, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Maternity Portrait Session in Progress, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Khazakstan Pavilion, Moscow RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Khazakstan Pavilion, Moscow RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Along the Tram Line, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Along the Tram Line, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Outside Taltsy Museum of Traditional Culture, Listvyanka, RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Outside Taltsy Museum of Traditional Culture, Listvyanka, RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Sveta on the Trans-Siberian Railway, Khabarovsk RF 2011 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Sveta on the Trans-Siberian Railway, Khabarovsk RF 2011 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Hotel Room, Vladivostok 2012 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Hotel Room, Vladivostok 2012 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Outside Orthodox Church Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Outside Orthodox Church Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Funeral Flower Shop Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Funeral Flower Shop Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

© Victoria Crayhon - Closed Beauty Shop, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print
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Closed Beauty Shop, Irkutsk RF 2018 30 x 44 inch archival pigment print

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