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2014 06.03 – 04.04 Mir palace of culture, Dubna Moskovskaya obl. Russia

Photography series
40×60 cm
Production: 2013 — 2014

Small towns are hard to distinguish. Their transparent modernity uncovers itself in everyday routine and reaches its extreme with a question, what to pay attention at if there are no places of interest hereabout. Walking down the streets, you start looking for the answer. Buffs, these colorful patches on a town’s body that cover graffiti and tags, catch your eyes sooner or later.

Having found a buff, I mounted the camera on a tripod, switched on the torch attached to it, directed its beam into the buff, took the first photograph, and waited for possible feedback (while the light beam was shining). Hence the communication with passers-by and residents usually occurred and, asking me what I was doing there, they stopped on their way and defined the other point to take the second photo from. Some of them remembered shapes of previous buffs and recalled moments when graffiti appeared on their building for the first time.

Buffers often (in most cases they work for town community services) do not take care of aesthetic part of their activities, do not think that patch colors should correspond to wall tones and about the meaning of tags and thoughts of their authors.

Strangely, they bring unique features to town districts, which would otherwise be dull and identical.