Cold snaps: the Siberian city of Yakutsk – in pictures
Yakutsk, in eastern Siberia, is one of the world’s coldest cities; temperatures in January average -40C. Alex Vasyliev started photographing his cold and isolated home town to stave off tedium. “I did not always want to shoot here. Yakutsk seemed unbearably boring and ugly to me. But in this boredom and unattractiveness, I find charm,” he says. “I like to shoot things that others criticise – ugly streets, parking lots, gas stations, old playgrounds, ordinary people.” The region’s icy conditions feature heavily in his work, which captures the harsh reality of life so far below zero. “Russia is a completely different world. Local people are accustomed to such conditions, but living in the winter is hard here,” he says. “Cold steals our energy. Life stops.”