Countryside reflected in aged faces

Vladimir Zaitsev lives in Arkhangelsk, heads the sales department at a major company and has been taking photos for more than 30 years now. He took up photography in the ’80s, used a Zenit camera, tried for a fine-art look and printed his photos himself. He entered international competitions and won prizes – in Hong Kong, the USA and elsewhere. Work, family – he had no time for his hobby for some time. But in 2009, Vladimir purchased a digital camera, joined the Archangel photo club and has been photographing again since then. He likes taking pictures of northern landscapes but prefers people, trying to bring out their personalities in his portraits. In 2019, Vladimir’s work entitled “Life’s Journey” received the Aged Faces of Russia special award from the Timchenko Foundation as part of the Russian Geographical Society’s competition called “The Most Beautiful Country”. This year, the special award is offered again for photo depictions of the life of senior citizens such as portraits, coverage, scenes of life and other forms. Entries can be submitted to the competition by the deadline of 5 April.

Vladimir, who are the subjects of your portraits?

People who make an interesting study for a photograph. You just feel it in your bones. I don’t recall names; I don’t record what they talked about, although I should probably do that… We come to a village, we talk – our northern folks are obliging and sociable; they invite you in right away. But if I realize that I’m unlikely to do a good job of photographing this person, I don’t go in. A pragmatic approach. People whose pictures I’d like to take are not always beautiful in terms of some generally accepted standards – I’m attracted to unusual faces. If I feel like talking to a person, I’ll want to photograph them later on. The greatest appeal to me in photography is an opportunity to bring out the inner world of a person, reveal what makes them tick.

The subject of the portrait that won in the Aged Faces of Russia category, you don’t recall her name either?

Not the name, no. I remember her face. That photograph was taken some 6 to 7 years back in one of villages in the Kargopol District, Arkhangelsk Oblast. I remember that I later chose photographs for that women. I printed them out and drove them to her. That made her day. But for the subjects and for a competition, the pics must usually be different. People like photos of themselves where they strike poses, smile. Audiences need something else.

Drama?

I’d say psychology. If a cheerful smile reveals the nature of a person, then there’s no need to look for drama. People are generally hard to photograph, and you can take a thousand pics, but never get anywhere. Have you ever seen models being photographed? Click, click, click – 5 to 6 shots per second. And it’s all just to catch and capture instantaneous changes in the expressions on their faces. The face has a multitude of muscles; it is mercurial, with facial expressions changing all the time. You pick up one frame from among a thousand, five thousand photographs…

You have many portraits of seniors. Are their faces more interesting or easier to handle?

Generally speaking, I like shooting all manner of people. I’ve got good snapshots of children – but you need to track down their parents for permission to publish the photo, and this is not always easy to do — it’s a bit of a hurdle. But the aged faces appeal to me because in our northern villages they are an endangered species; they are different, unimprinted by city life as it were… Faces that reflect rural life. Younger generations have nothing like this, not even in villages. Even those who are 55-60 years old look more like city dwellers.

And you travel from village to village with your photo club?

Sure. The Spolokhy photo club is 40 now. We enter competitions together, including club events. This year, we took fifth place in the Berega photo competition for clubs in Russia (out of 93 photo clubs, 700+ members). We travel together. We take 35-40 trips a year. Since 2009, we have travelled not only across Arkhangelsk Oblast – we’ve been to Karelia and Vologda and Yaroslavl Oblasts. It’s beautiful everywhere. But for me, our villages are more beautiful and … more photogenic. Kiltsa, Kimzha, Sovpolye. Unconventional houses, horses are running around, sheep are grazing – Arkhangelsk villages still have pristine beauty, like a hundred years ago. Some villages forbid you to build houses that will ruin this beauty. They are still free of such wholesale ruin as in other regions, where the houses are sided and roofed with green or orange modern tiles. And our villages are populated with good people, with interesting faces.

As a winner, you received a travel voucher. Where did you go?

Last autumn I went to Altai. It is glorious! Altai is amazing – you’re driving down the Chuya Highway and taking it all in: the landscape, the wildlife. I rented a car, went on tours. When I came back, I looked at the photos, and I can see that there are many good ones. You can take picture-perfect photos or try for an unusual, artistic look, for even the Kremlin in Red Square. I think I got it. I’ve brought nearly 6000 photographs, and 4 of 5 of them are good enough for a competition. After my trip, I caught the coronavirus and felt weak for a long time – I started regaining my strength recently. So I have yet to select and send photos to the Most Beautiful Country competition. But I’ve still got time until April.

Nearly 6000 photographs! And over 30 trips a year. How many photos do you take per year?

It’s certainly not on every [trip] that I take so many pictures. But I do bring in 25-30 thousand pics every year. When I come back and export photos from the camera, I delete some 20 to 30 per cent of the content right away. From what is left, maybe one pic will make the grade or maybe none.