Odessa by Vsevolod Vlasenko
Introduction This is a story about silent ruins of magnificent houses, calm and timeless old yards, where you don’t feel the pressure of modern life, where time stops. Unfortunately those places are like snow in spring, melting from the heat of progress. Odessa was a pearl in Russian Empire before revolution, a city, where cultures and religions collided in a mixture most peculiar. The World War II and communist regime both did not destroy it’s unique soul. But after the crash of Soviet Union many beautiful old villas were abandoned. Now empty, they stand silent, picturing both human ability to create beautiful things, and the sheer helplessness in the face of time and changes. The photographs merely humbly depict these shards of former splendour. With my lens i try to secure these sacred places, which are doomed to become dust quite soon.
Edition number 1, / june 2013 Fonts by Letterhead studio. | letterhead.ru Photo by Vsevolod Vlasenko | vsevolodvlasenko.com
st. Kniajeskaia, 2011
st. Marazli, 2006
Old garden, French boulevard, 2009
Sanatorium Arcadia on French boulevard, 2013
Abandoned Freemasons house, 2009
Abandoned old villa, French boulevard, 2009
Ruins of the old hotel, 2011
old villa and soviet sculpture, 2013
Old villa of count Marazli, 2007
Old Botanical garden, 2013
Broken soviet lamp on the villas balcony, 2010
Inside abandoned villa, French boulevard, 2010
Old Synagogue, 2012
Winter in the old yard, 2011
Wooden gates, 2011
House on st. Kniajeskaia, 2011
Strange stairs, 2011
“Novi bazaar� old market in the evening, 2011
Big soviet painting “Novi bazaar”, 2011
Stairway to the bridge, 2011
Old fountain near villa on French boulevard, 2010
People still live in this house, 2012
Under the bridge, 2012
Evening, 2012
Doors and cat, 2012
Old gates on st.Kyzneshnaia, 2011
Old backyard, 2011
Stranger, 2011
flea market “Starokonni market”, 2012
Bulevar in fog, 2010
Beautiful old yard on st. Polska, 2007
Old house, 2007
Backyard, 2010
Typical backyard in Odessa, 2012
Door, 2011
inside the Synagogue, 2012
Typical backyard, 2012
Famous old sauna 1861, 2013
Like hundred years ago, 2012
Young odessit, 2011
Window, 2007
In the house on st. Marazli, 2010
Light window, 2011
In the tower of the old villa, 2010
Abandoned villa in winter, 2010
Old yard with linen drying, 2007
Linen drying, 2012
Backyard, 2011
Flea market “Starokonni market”, 2012
Summer time in the old yard, 2013
Stairs in the back yard, 2013
Linen drying, 2013
Old gates, 2013
Entrance, 2011
Boy, 2011
Window, 2007
House on st. Spiridonovskaia, 2011
Old brothel in Moldovanka, 2007