The Urals is a geographical region in Russia and Kazakhstan. The Ural mountain ridge is the main part of this region. The Ural Mountains stretch for 2500 kilometers from the Arctic Ocean to Kazakhstan. The boundary between Europe and Asia runs along the Ridge.

The Urals is not only a geographical junction point but also a melting pot for different cultures. First people came here many centuries before Christ. In the Middle Ages pagan, Muslim and Christian cultures came across here and managed not to exterminate each other merging into something new. Russians, Tatars, Bashkirs, Ukrainians, Udmurts, Zyrians, Mari, Mansi are still living in the Urals side by side.

Since the 17^th century and up till now the Urals is the industrial center of the country. After the Russians had completed the colonization of the region the industrial civilization became a new layer in the history of the Urals.

However, myths and reality, past and present of the Uralscoexist today forming a peculiar Ural world different from

anything else. Ancient pagan images guard mountains, rivers, forests and impregnate minds of the people living here.

This project is based on three starting points: the Mansi and Bashkir mythology, Pavel Bazhov's writings and factory culture. The project title is a reference to Bazhov's tales. He was the first to advert to the Ural mythology and turn heathen gods into fairy tale characters integrating them into the factory culture and among Ural heroes – the workers. Photo series "Tales" is an attempt to create a new image of the region based upon the richest cultural and historical material.

"Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" is a well-known series of color wood block prints by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. There is Fujiyama – the sacred mountain of Japan — in every image of this series.

Degtyarsk is a town in Sverdlovsk Region with the population of about 14 000 people. Once a prosperous mining town today it is dependent on the Region's subsidy. Towering over the opposite ends of the town there are two huge waste piles – heaps of dead rock from Kapitalnaya 1 and Kapitalnaya 2 mines. The once successful town-forming copper mining enterprise has left the town in the state of environmental disaster: waste waters from the mines still poison soil and water supply, and the waste piles have a high level of radiation background. Besides one can hardly find a former miner in the town due to the extreme health hazard of copper mining. There is a town legend in Degtyarsk saying that some time ago Japanese wanted to buy the waste piles but the town said no explaining that they are the 'strategic stockpile'.

The waste piles can be seen from almost any point in Degtyarsk, they dominate the town with the people's lives running at their foot. The waste piles are a metaphor for the post-Soviet economy and the today's state of the one-factory towns scattered throughout the country.

For four centuries the Ural Maris managed to preserve their traditional religion which reveres the forces of nature each personified by its god. Currently, of course, the Mari Paganism is different from that of the 16th century. It has changed under the influence of Christianity and Islam. However up to the beginning of the 20th century there was a sacred grove in each Mari village where people could pray.

The greatest harm to the Mari culture and religion wasdone by the Soviet government in the first half of the 20thcentury. Today Mari language, traditions, beliefs andlifestyle are endangered; young people leave villages and move to large cities searching for job. Today one of the main attributes of the Maris' identity and pride is their unique traditional garment. Many shirts and dresses are passed down from generation to generation, some pieces of clothing being a hundred years old. These clothes are cherished by the families and are worn only on special occasions. The most valuable garment detail is handmade embroidery, though the meaning of the embroidered symbols has been completely lost over the years. Garments are being sewn over, decorated with modern details, machine-made embroidery, old pieces of embroidery are used in new clothing.

(Project in collaboration with Denis Tarasov)

For three years photographers Denis Tarasov and Fyodor Telkov have been studying the world of the penitentiaries, restricted and frightening because of its everyday cruelty. They photographed terrible criminals sentenced to life imprisonment and ordinary people who made a false step only once in their life. The photographers visited juvenile and female prisons; worked in museums and archives with the most high-profile cases of the past, recorded interviews with former prisoners. This work resulted in a photo series about crime and punishment, freedom and nonconformism, the nature of evil which is timeless and takes root in a person's soul.