Incredible Yakutia in the lens of local photographer Alexey Vasiliev

Icy the outskirts of the city, the pagan New year, mammoths, waitress at a roadside cafe, a rural school. Photographer Alexey Vasiliev shows the daily life of the coldest region of Russia.

Yakutia is the largest region of Russia. In size it exceeds, for example, France, five times. Distances between towns and villages here reach as high as 1500-2000 km away, where is the coldest place in the world where in June, the snow may fall, and winter temperatures fall below -50°C.

About the Yakut cold and ferocious mosquitoes Yakut legends and plenty of memes online. To reach Yakutia from Moscow, will have to overcome more than 8 thousand kilometers.

In 2016 he was a finalist in the LensCulture Street Photography international, ever since his photo was published by National Geographic, and a Russian edition. Said about him:

Vasiliev takes Yakutia in the past few years, at different times of the year with its icy outskirts, brightly lit stalls in the middle of the dark sockets, women in traditional dresses, children and teenagers are not equipped children's courts, clean Yakut reality.

Speaking of Yakutia, Vasilyev often repeats, that place has become a tourist must pass 20 years.

And yet it is hard to get and extreme attract the few travellers who still dare to go for flavor so far.

Last year in Yakutia was visited by the journalists, scientists and environmentalists from all over Russia. Siberia and Yakutia swept heat waves, forest fires and the invasion grown too large caterpillars of moths. Scientists say that there is warming two times faster than the average for the planet.

Home Vasiliev takes unvarnished. He also believes that capture the average person is not so difficult.

Yakuts are not the most emotional people, but what they can not refuse — it's the eagerness to preserve their national identity. In this case, among the indigenous peoples of Russia, they hold a strong lead.

The Yakuts, even your New year — it is celebrated in the summer and called Ysyakh. Instead of champagne Mare, is the Christmas tree — the sacred pillar "Serge". In the Soviet years it was banned, and now everyone is just waiting to get dressed in the national Yakut dresses.

Or, for example, Yakutsk movie in the local cinema more than any other, and show it with Russian subtitles. Vasilyev this phenomenon is the subject of the photo project "Shaved". He spent nine months on the set, and before each new location filmmakers "fed" the land of fire and good luck. Yakut professed Tengrianism. In other words, they are pagans.

Even before the pandemic, he got a job as a courier to the extra money — it takes only a draft and not every day. And found Yakut identity was even in the hallways of apartment buildings, which residents have begun to settle in the likeness of apartments. In the hallways hang carpets, put pots with flowers, soft old chairs.

He says he takes Yakutia, because it is convenient, it is always at hand and he can continue to shoot projects for unlimited time. But during this period do not even have time to really travel — Yakutia too big, and its North — a real Paradise for a photographer. However, if you happen to go somewhere else, he will certainly go.