15 unique photos from the life of the Russian hinterland

Photographer Nadia Sablin from Russia, living in Brooklyn, won the annual American award for Firecracker photo project about their Russian ladies under the name "Two sisters".

Two elderly unmarried aunts of the photographer — Aleftina and Lyudmila — all my life I have lived and worked in big cities, and after retiring decided to return to the traditional way of life, having moved to his village of Forsyth in the Leningrad region in the house that was once built by their father. Despite his advanced age, women are chopping wood, carrying water from the well and sew their clothes. They claim that physical work allows them to stay alive.

Nadia Sablin was born in the Soviet Union, but in the 90's he emigrated with his parents to America.

For this project Nadia three summers spent with his aunts in the Orange, removing their simple village life and the world around them.

They have, of course, has its own garden and orchard.

And "at leisure" they do needlework.

And like crossword puzzles.

"My photography is the study of ancestral tradition and land as a means of survival," says the photographer.

"And how these two women are relying on each other."

"Surrounding the rural environment itself is a character as they are".

"My project is about ageing, family and sense of belonging".

And that's what Nadia says about her family: "In 1952, my grandfather began to lose his sight as a result of wounds during the second world war.

Wanting to get back to where he was born, he found an unoccupied hill in a village not far from his brothers and sisters.

He dismantled his house and pulled the logs down the river Oyat, to assemble it again in a new place.

In this house, with no heating and plumbing, grew up, my father and his brothers and sisters. After graduation they moved to live in the city.

Now, half a century later, the house still stands, and live in it for two of my aunts.

Their lives seem completely untouched by time".