36 Species, 2012–2015

“Thirty-six Views of Fuji” is a famous series of color prints by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. All works in this series contain an image of the sacred mountain of Japan - Fuji. Degtyarsk is a small town in the Sverdlovsk region with a population of about 14,000 people. This once thriving mining town today lives on subsidies from the region. At opposite ends of the city, there are two huge waste heaps - mountains of waste waste rock from two mines - Kapitalnaya 1 and Kapitalnaya 2. The city-forming copper ore mining enterprise, which was successful in the past, left behind a real environmental disaster; water from the mines still continues to poison the soil and water. , and the waste heaps themselves have an increased background radiation. In addition, there are almost no former miners left in the city, because working with copper ore has an extremely negative impact on health. There is a story in the city that the Japanese were once going to buy the waste heaps, but Degtyarsk refused, explaining that the mountains were a “strategic” reserve.

The waste heaps can be seen from almost anywhere in Degtyarsk; the lives of the townspeople take place near them; they, like two Fujis, tower over the city. The image of waste heaps is a metaphor for the post-Soviet economy and the current situation of single-industry towns scattered throughout the country. Filming for the project began in 2012 and ended in 2015. The result of the project was the photo book 36 Views, published in Spain by Ediciones Anomalas.