Russian Past - The Gulag

• Photographer
  Ludmila Ketslakh
• Agency / Studio
  Ludmila Ketslakh Photography,
• Prizes
  Gold in Editorial/Photo Essay, Bronze in Portfolio/Personal

The images in Russian Past – The Gulag were taken in Karelia and in the Russian Far East. In portraying the events that took place under Stalin I wish to draw attention to a tragic historical phase and to keep alive the memory of a persecution which has been mostly neglected. This goal was reinforced when I discovered that most of the people I met are trying to forget that past and don’t want to talk about it. I spoke to young people who had never heard, or were not taught of Stalin’s crimes against his own people.Most final photographs are composites, which combine my own images with historic

Formally a Mechanical engineer, I became a photographer in 2001. I graduated from Belarusian Polytechnic Institute with Master Degree in Thermodynamics. Currently I am completing the degree in Photography Technology at WCC in Ann Arbor. During the last eighteen years I have attended numerous workshops at Santa Fe, Maine and TWP photographic workshops. I had chance to met and study with outstanding teachers, they are the most influential photographers of our time who changed the way I look at the world. The list includes: Sam Abell, Antonin Krotochvil, Eugene Richards, Alex Majoli, Andrea Modic