Vitaly Maksimchuk continues a tradition from world capitals. The city's residents get photographed while dancing in the streets of Vladivostok, a city known as the "Soviet San Francisco"
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Vitaly Maksimchuk
Vitaly Maksimchuk continues a tradition from world capitals. He photographs girls dancing in the streets of the city. Similar projects have been made in Paris and New York, as well as the Russian city of Saint Petersburg. The city's residents do ordinary things they always do while dancing. They hail taxis, walk down the street, send letters, drink coffee, and now get photographed while dancing in the streets of Vladivostok, a city known as the "Soviet San Francisco"
Vitaly Maksimchuk
When Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev visited Vladivostok (distance from Moscow 9 037 km) in 1959 after a trip to the United States, he declared that the then-closed city would be 'our Soviet San Francisco'. The phrase stuck, even though the transformation from dreary Soviet port into a gleaming city-by-the-bay took far longer than Khrushchev envisioned.
Vitaly Maksimchuk
The new Russky Bridge — currently the world’s largest cable-stayed bridge— arcs over the sea and connects Vladivostok with nearby Russky Island, which was the site of last year’s APEC Summit.
Vitaly Maksimchuk
Until four years ago, the city felt like a forgotten outpost but, as a result of September 2012 APEC summit, has now become a modern port town - and one of the best places to visit in Russia. Since 2008, over $21 billion were spent in a much-needed expansion of the city's infrastructure and in other construction projects, including a new campus on Russky Island for the consolidated Far Eastern Federal University.
Vitaly Maksimchuk
Yet even before the recent flood of money, Vladivostok had a certain gritty charm. The city is favored by its spectacular setting on hills surrounding the Golden Horn Bay.
Vitaly Maksimchuk
The bay's name is thought to derive from the renowned estuary in Istanbul known as the Golden Horn, and its waters can indeed seem golden, particularly in the rich sunlight of late summer.
Vitaly Maksimchuk
Summer lasts just three months - June, July and August - and even these can be spoiled by monsoon rains and temperatures averaging above 30 degrees. In winter, the temperature varies from minus 10 to minus 30, and it is extremely difficult even for a native to walk through the icy wind.
Vitaly Maksimchuk
Residents of the European part of Russia consider Vladivostok the end of the country, but natives of Vladivostok see the city as the beginning - after all, the sun rises in the east.
