Hi!

Hi.

What's your name?

Anfisa.

Please tell us about yourself, where you live, what you do, what you get inspired with.

Well, I live in Nickel, in the Murmansk region, I've tried leaving it many times, and
every time I came back again. As I got older I realized that the most important thing for
me was not big cities with a lot of art shows but the town I value. So one day my
husband and I made a decision, we loaded our things on a truck and went back to Nickel.
So we live here, develop our spirituality and inner world, learn new skills, I'm studying
photography, my husband has his own studies, and we feel great here.

So you're a photographer.

Yes, I've been doing it since I was 19, and I've gone through all the stages, from
wedding photo sessions to my today's work. By the time I was 22 I realized I had two
favourite directions, the first one that's most important to me is that I've begun to think
of myself as a documentary photographer. I began to realize that I didn't want to simply
make money on photography, though, like any photographer, I earned money on wedding
photo sessions and reports, which are my main source of income. We live in Nickel, and
there used to be more reports to be made, I really like it, but I would like to make my
contribution to history, to leave my mark, even if I leave Nickel one day. I'd like to leave
a kind of mark in Nickel. I left Murmansk when I was 22, and there was a small art show
about my inner circle, about my friends and the people I'd met, I made their portraits and
we had an art show at the Ledokol hotel. It was fun, and I left Murmansk with a clear
conscience. Then I went back to Nickel. I love Nickel. People may have different
opinions about this place, people who live in beautiful big cities may be scared of it, but
it has this thing I can't quite describe, that only the natives can feel. I was born here and I
grew up here and so my love for this place comes from the inside. As for the mark I'd
like to leave, I'd like to give… Don't know how to put it…

Everyone is talking about bad ecology, and a few years ago I used to work as a guide to a group of photographers from Sweden, and they came and made photos of how bad things were, how the combine destroys the environment. But don't let's forget that we're here only thanks to the combine, it's the core enterprise and if it weren't for the combine we wouldn't be here, our parents and grandparents wouldn't have come here to develop the area and the industry. That's how it came to be, how it was destined to be. I met my husband here. It's the history of this place, of the people who live here. It makes me sad when people see only the bad side of things. And now I'm developing a project, it's still raw, but I'd like to picture the combine as the heart of the town. It may be grey or black, but still it's the heart, the thing that breathed life into the town. And I'd like to realise this idea in the form of a photo and video show, to draw the parallel between the history of the people who live here, I'm looking for interesting artists who make their contributions, and the life of our combine.

There are a few days left before it is closed down on the 25th, the chimneys are not smoking anymore, it's such a historic event for us. I'd very much like to document this moment and tell about it in a series of photos and videos. And now when it's not closed down yet and the combine is still there, our town looks the same, but no one knows what it's going to be like. There was the sad story of a town named Prirechniy, which also had an industry, and after it closed down the place just died, there's nothing there. There are a few residents and the ecology's good but most people have left it. I don't know what will become of Nickel after the closure, it may last for a short time, or longer if tourists come. I'm here for the time being and I want to document the life that's going here and now. I don't know if you've noticed the hum of the combine, we're used to it and we don't notice it anymore, but we heard it again and