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Julia Smorodova
The photographer Julia Smorodova got acquainted to these people via one of the newspaper of her native Tver Region.
Julia Smorodova
A village club “Truzhenik” is located in the village with the same name not far from Tver.
Julia Smorodova
With a little help from the director of the local House of Culture, she found the contacts and visited the "Truzhenik" (which is "Slogger" in Russian) during a rehearsal.
Julia Smorodova
When she arrived there, she wondered: “This collective is rather famous in Tver, they participate in various local feasts, their shows are prepared pretty thoroughly…”
Julia Smorodova
All of this is made by members of the collective themselves: without any precise aim, without money, without any support. The only motivation is to express their creativity.
Julia Smorodova
These people are “creating a holiday.” They are not paid for it. They sew suits and make their fellow villagers happy.
Julia Smorodova
This is how the women prepare for the show dedicated to Defenders of the Fatherland Day, for example...
Julia Smorodova
Since then, Julia has visited "Truzhenik" a few times, taking pictures of their self-professed but still nice and heartfelt performances.
Julia Smorodova
The actors are common people: a village teacher, a postman, a cleaning woman. They all act here together and, maybe because of that, have rare qualities for actors – absence of pomposity and vanity.
Julia Smorodova
Maybe because of these rare qualities the songs sung here are simple and understandable. The rustle of skirts, the children`s laughter, sounds of the accordion and tea from the samovar – all of this together says a lot, but only in the span of a 45-minute concert.
