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Culture




                                                                                                                                      Q: How did you start with photography?
                                                                                                                                      Photography  and  I  is  a  rather  unusual
                                                                                                                                      relationship.  It  comes  and  goes,  but  looking
                                                                                                                                      back, I see it has perhaps been a connecting
                                                                                                                                      thread through my life. My grandfather was
                                                                                                                                      an amateur photographer, and he initiated me
                                                                                                                                      to it. When my parents saw my keen interest,
                                                                                                                                      they bought me my first camera when I was
                                                                                                                                      nine years old. I never had a formal education
                                                                                                                                      in photography. It was just my passion.

                                                                                                                                      It is interesting how it comes to me, then it goes
                                                                                                                                      away. When I graduated from university, I set
                                                                                                                                      up a business that was related to photography.
                                                                                                                                      It  was  a  shop  developing  photos,  selling
                                                                                                                                      cameras  etc.  It  was  in  fact  a  very  successful
                                                                                                                                      business in Youkuti, and through my efforts, it
                                                                                                                                      had become a very well-known company.
                                                                                                                                      As  I  said,  at  a  certain  point  in  my  life,  I
                                                                                                                                      decided  to  go  to  Australia,  and  while  being
              “The World in Faces” – a hymn to the                                                                                    there  I  continued  taking  photos,  just  for
                                                                                                                                      pleasure. Then one day, I made a big decision
              people of the world                                                                                                     and decided to travel around the world. It was
                                                                                                                                      about 15 years ago.

                               “My  message  that  I  want  to  convey  is  that,  It had taken 6 months to produce these 170         So, I left Australia, basically as a backpacker,
                               whatever culture, whatever we are, we are all  high  quality  XL-size  photo  portraits.  The          and started on my tour around the world. The
                               the same human beings wherever you go. In the  work was carried out by Khimushin himself               first year I travelled nonstop. I was in India,
                               media they try to create a difference, but we are  in his printing lab in Moscow. We were lucky        Tibet,  all-over  South-East  Asia,  and  then  I
                               all the same at the end of the day!”  to  meet  with  Alexander  Khumushin,  before                    continued. So for 15 years now I have travelled
                               Interview   with   Alexander   Khimushin,  he and the exhibit went off to Berlin where the             nonstop. It was only the last couple of years
                               photographer,  ethnoloisty,  blogger  and  Berliners will have their chance to see these               that I did not travel so much because of this
                               journalist                            impressive photos. So, Alexander, the floor is                   exhibit that you have seen. Before that I was  to  travel  reporting,  and  all  of  a  sudden  I
                                                                     yours.                                                           most of the time on the road somewhere.  became a popular blogger there. Every time
                               For  weeks,  the  beautiful  photo  exhibit  The                                                       When  I  started  to  travel,  the  first  thing  I  I published something, my article was on the
                               World in Faces, has been a delight for the eyes  Q: Could you tell us a little about yourself?         thought to do was to take my camera with me,  front  page.  Then  after  sometime,  I  felt  like
                               of every visitor to the E-building at the United  I come from Yakutia, one of the coldest places       and  I  have  been  photographing  ever  since.  doing something different.
                               Nations headquarters in Geneva. The exhibit  in Russia. In the winter is can be up to -50              At first it was it was a blog about my travels,
                               consists  of  170  high  resolution,  extra-large  degrees  Centigrade.  People  still  work  and      about  different  cultures,  but  not  only,  more  When you travel extensively you see a lot of
                               photo  portraits  of  indigenous  people,  taken  the  children  go  to  school.  In  the  summer      like “travel style”. My idea of travel was not to  different countries, different cultures, different
                               by Alexander Khimushin himself during his  sometimes  up  to  40  degrees.  My  coldest                go to the tourist places. I love to go to places  landscapes, and at some point, you say, “OK
                               numerous travels all over the world. You could  winter experience was 62 degrees centigrade            where few persons before me have visited, one  I  have  been  there.”  So,  I  started  to  question
                               see  Indigenous  people  from  Siberia  such  as  below zero.                                          might say areas untouched by “civilization”.  myself about the purpose of it all. I could not
                               Nganasan people, Africans, Asians… and in                                                                                                     explain it, it’s like I had an addiction to travel.
                               these restriction times, it made us dream and  I now live in Moscow but before that I lived            Q;  If  I  understand  you  right,  you  take  At the same time, you have lost this feeling of
                               travel far away.                      for  many  years  in  Australia.  One  day,  I                   portraits of people?                   novelty.
                                                                     decided that I would like to go to Australia.                    As  I  just  explained,  it  was  more  travel
                               When  talking  about  the  exhibit,  Khimushin  It was just my dream to go there, and so I             photography.  In  the  beginning  I  shared  it  Then  one  day,  looking  through  my
                               said, “The photos are all of Indigenous People  ended up there. During the 10 years I lived            with  my  friends,  a  blog  over  the  internet.  photographs for my next article for this TV
                               from all over the world, whose portraits I took  in  Australia,  I  was  never  back  in  Russia,      Then  the  blog  became  very  popular,  and  I  channel, I found several interesting portraits.
                               all over the last 10 years that I’ve been working  I  spent  my  time  travelling  around  the         was  invited  to  write  for  one  of  the  Russian  As you can imagine, I have a huge amount of
                               on this photo project.”               world.                                                           TV  channels.  They  had  a  website  dedicated  photographs in my archives. Then I decided



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