TITLE: Towards the Horizon

This project developed as I visited small suburban towns and villages of Russia. It shows the lives of people, their relationships with each other and the places they live. I take photographs of province places during the several years now. This is my main topic, I would say. I live close to Moscow, but take every single opportunity to go somewhere far from it, to some small town or village. There is some charm, peculiar to the province life that big cities do not have.

In Russia one can feel the difference between the capital and the province, the middle and the periphery like nowhere else. Even the word “province” itself has some special meaning in modern Russian language: it means “all the country, except its capital”.

When you leave Moscow for province you feel like crossing the border between two different worlds, the feeling of space changes so the feeling of time does. In the capital the space is closed, limited by the buildings walls, time is concentrated, it is always not enough. The space of province appears to be endless, it spreads towards the horizon, and the time runs slow, almost by itself.

In province you feel you want to walk. The more space, the more your feet can cross. The slower time flows the less you hurry. The regular life goes slow. One can find it gray and boring; other can find there something the capital does not have: the feeling of the ground and nature, the escape from city bustle.

Different space means different people. Yes, they can be not as smart as those who live in the cities, the demand much less, but at the same time they are much more real and open-minded, their honesty is what you want to believe in.

AUTHOR: Emil Gataullin (Russian Federation)

Emil Gataullin, born in 1972, is a Russian photographer, based in Korolyov, Moscow Region, Russia. In 1999 he graduated from Moscow Surikov Institute of Art, majoring in monumental painting. He studied photography with one of the leading Russian photography ideologists and authors, Alexander Lapin, from 2003 to 2004. In 2005 Emil joined The Russian Union of Art Photographers. In 2016 his book "Towards the Horizon" was published by Edition Lammerhuber.

Awards & Honors:

2015 – 1st prize of the International Festival of Photography “PhotoVisa”
2014 – Grand Prix of the “Best Picture on the Theme of Peace” of “The Alfred Fried Photography Award”
2014 – Finalist of the International Festival of Photography “PhotoVisa”
2014 – Finalist of the Circle of Life contest, International photofestival “Vilnius Photo Circle”
2010 – Grand Prix of the Best Photo of the Year at the contest "The Best Photographer", 1st Prize in the Everyday Life Photo category, 1st Prize in the Art Photograph category
2010 – 3rd prize in the People and Events category of the Photojournalism Development Foundation
2009 – 1st prize in the Everyday Life section of the My Best Photograph competition by Epson
2005 – Top-10 winner of the competition “Young Photographers of Russia”

Personal exhibitions:

2016 – “Towards the Horizon”, GAF gallery (Hannover, Germany)
2016 – “Towards the Horizon”, “Art of Foto” gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia)
2016 – “Kolyma. In the shadow of time”, Vologda Regional Art Gallery (Vologda, Russia)
2016 – “Kolyma. In the shadow of time”, Magadan Regional Studies Museum (Magadan, Russia)
2015 – “Kolyma. In the shadow of time”, Krasnoyarsk Book Culture Fair, (Krasnoyarsk, Russia)
2015 – “Kolyma of Shalamov and today”, Сentre of Сulture “Red Corner” (Vologda, Russia)
2015 – “Kolyma. In the shadow of time”, International Society Memorial (Moscow, Russia)
2014 – “Towards the Horizon”, Vilnius Photo Circle (Vilnius, Lithuania)
2012 – “Without words”, “Promgrafika” gallery (Moscow, Russia)

Group exhibitions:

2016 – “Evolution of Sight. 1991-2016”, Central Exhibition Hall “Manege” (Moscow, Russia)
2014 – “Cultivating a Culture of Peace” – The Alfred Fried Photography Award, an exhibition to celebrate the 70th anniversary of UNESCO (Paris, France)
2014 – Group exhibition during VI International Festival of Photography “PhotoVisa” (Krasnodar, Russia)
2012 – “XXI. My Pacific Ocean”, The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
2012 – “Looking photographer”, The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
2011 – "Russia sacred", Russian orthodox church Saint Michel Archange (Cannes, France)
2009–2011 – "We", a travelling exhibition, held by web-based community “Photopolygon” (Novosibirsk, Krasnodar, Moscow, Yuzhno-Sahalinsk, Vladivostok)
2011 – "A private holiday", Center for Documentary Photography «FOTODOC» (Moscow, Russia)
2010 – "Man in Motion", Central Exhibition Hall “Manege” (St. Petersburg, Russia)
2009 – "Lapin school", Сenter of Contemporary Art «WINZAVOD» (Moscow, Russia)
2009 – "Human. The circles of the being", Central Exhibition Hall “Manege” (St. Petersburg, Russia)