Vorkouta | Fisheye Magazine

Jef Bonifacino

Spring 2015. Jef heads to the easternmost town of the European continent, to the north of the Ural Mountains: Vorkuta. A former gulag, the Soviet government sent prisoners there to tap the coal produced in the mines. Time has taken its toll, there’s no coal left and still no road to get there. Vorkuta is today an abandoned city where inhabitants’ lives slowly follow their own course.

La chasse près des anciennes mines. Terre et charbon se confondent. C’est la nuit, il fait plus froid, mais il fait jour.

Après l’avoir trempée dans l’eau bouillante, il va falloir maintenant plumer, vider, cuisiner et manger cette oie !

Natalia est une amie de Danil, mais elle en veut à Micha qui n’a pas réussi à faire acquitter son mari bandit. Micha était son avocat, sans lui, ce ne sont pas treize, mais vingt ans de prison qu’il aurait eu.

Retour à Vorkouta dans la voiture de Danil. La route de Vorkouta tourne en rond, il faut attendre l’été pour les 4×4, ou l’hiver en moto neige, afin de pousser la balade vers l’océan arctique ou les monts Oural.

Chez Micha un ami de Danil, à Vorgachor. Micha m’explique que les générations précédentes avaient un piano dans leur salon, mais de nos jours, on a une guitare.

Pause cigarette entre deux suées à la bagna. Le soleil ne se couche pas pendant l’été et reste longtemps près de l’horizon.

Un gamin devant la rivière Vorkouta, qui donne son nom à la ville. Elle longe les immeubles à l’Ouest et sépare la nouvelle ville de l’ancien quartier Rudnik, le cœur historique.

Palais de la culture de Vorgachor. Vorkouta est le quartier principal d’un ensemble de quatorze quartiers qui se succèdent le long d’un anneau de route de 56 kilomètres. Ce cercle fermé est la seule route.

Images by © Jef Bonifacino

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