Shakespeare drama in traditional interiors of Mtsensk.
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Anastasia Tsayder
Photographer Anastasia Tsayder travelled in provincial Russia for three years, visiting villages in the Kursk region.
Anastasia Tsayder
She captured the interiors of the mythical town of Mtsensk.
Anastasia Tsayder
The series is named after the real Russian town of Mtsensk in the Oryol region (311 km south-west of Moscow), the location of the mythical world created by Russian author Nikolai Leskov.
Anastasia Tsayder
In the novel Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1864), the author tells the story of the terrible atrocities committed by Katerina Izmailova, the wife of a merchant.
Anastasia Tsayder
She kills three people, evoking Shakespeare’s tragedy in a rural Russian setting.
Anastasia Tsayder
“For me the provinces represent a hidden image, as exemplified by the interiors of southern Russia,” says photographer Anastasia Tsayder.
Anastasia Tsayder
The timeless objects in the photos are uprooted from their usual locale and moved to a mythical town called Mtsensk.
Anastasia Tsayder
The authentic interiors in the photos impart a sense of unreality.
Anastasia Tsayder
As a result, the places depicted in the illustrations represent a town that is half fiction, half real.
Anastasia Tsayder
Inhabitants of Russian cities are surrounded by interiors from the previous century and the photos depict the past.
