Udmurtya VIII

Udmurtya

Udmurtya is the region with one of the highest rates of suicides amongst males in Russia.
Many Udmurt’s hang themselves in the woods. There are several reasons for that. One of them is sheltered in the cultural traditions of the nation. Udmurt’s are shamanists, inseparability connected to nature, which is the essential part of their religion and rituals.
Tatarinova was interested in concentrating on portraits of widows, their stories and the images of nature – probable places of self-murders – but not always. Through the photo’s the spectator can reflect on how nature influence Udmurt’s.
Tatarinova is inclined to consider suicide as a manifestation of the powerful chthonic presence of archaic energy, which still lives in the remote Udmurtia.
She wanted to capture natural failure, a fatal failure, the hole in which other forces live, pulling the youth and strength of men into it.