Odessa. Vanishing city.

• Photographer
  Vsevolod Vlasenko

This is a story about silent ruins of magnificent houses, calm and timeless old yards, where you don’t feel the pressure of modern life, where time stops. Unfortunately those places are like snow in spring, melting from the heat of progress. Odessa was a pearl in Russian Empire before revolution, a city, where cultures and religions collided in a mixture most peculiar. The World War II and communist regime both did not destroy it’s unique soul. But after the crash of Soviet Union many beautiful old villas were abandoned. Now empty, they stand silent, picturing both human ability to create beautiful things, and the sheer helplessness in the face of time and changes. The photographs merely humbly depict these shards of former splendour. With my lens i try to secure these sacred places, which are doomed to become dust quite soon.