In mid-July I photographed a married couple with two wonderful sons. The photoset took place in the center of Moscow – the Red square and the Central Children’s Store. Also we went to the GUM for some ice cream. Valya and Igor – former Russian citizens, who moved to live and work to Australia and have received the citizenship there. Their boys were born in Australia and they are Australian “by birth”. The boys have never had Russian citizenship, but their parents want that children know and remember about their “Russian roots”.
We have agreed about photoset about six months prior to their arrival to Moscow. Some days before the session we connected by Skype and discussed their wishes to the photoset. There were not very many wishes, but one of them made me think a little and adjust the approach to my work. Valya told me that the city they live, is a “big village” with nothing remarkable… There are no big fancy buildings, no monuments, no large children’s shopping malls, no subway… So the Moscow surrounding which seems ordinary and uninteresting for local people is very interesting and necessary for them. They need the photos clearly shows location and city. I had to constantly keep in mind that I need to do not just family photos, but also “touristic photos” :))) With the choice of location (based on the wishes for the photos) we have not long thought – of course the Red square and CDM.
On the session day Valya’s sister joined us for some time. Also Igor’s mother joined us for full time but tis charming woman was embarrassed to appear in the frame and was just helping to carry the stroller and look out for it.
The main “star” of the shooting, of course, was little Max :)))
Here are some photos from this session.
