Anastasia Khoroshilova Moscow, Russia, b. 1978

For Anastasia Khoroshilova’s Russkie series, she wanted to document the variety of people in Russia who “arrived on the land of the Russian state from various other countries to live together in conditions shaped by history.” As observed by art theorist and critic Viktor Misiano, this social documentary effort by Khoroshilova to photograph a diverse group of people recalls portraits by August Sander to document every kind of profession in Germany. Russkie #36 is a portrait of nine people, lined-up and standing in the road. The photograph does not look planned; perhaps it was a group of people walking down the road almost in the order they are standing now. Khoroshilova states, “even in my arbitrary visual world, I will leave them as they are. I do not wish to, nor do I have the right to, meddle with their reality and disturb them once again.” This approach by Khoroshilova speaks to the genuine empathy she feels toward her subjects and is seen in the care in which she takes each image.