So That People Don’t Forget People

In autumn 2025, I travelled through the Lower Kolyma region of the Sakha Republic, in the Russian Arctic. The project follows people living in remote settlements along the Kolyma River — places where erosion, climate change, isolation and the collapse of local infrastructure are reshaping everyday life.

The work focuses on families such as the Samotishchuks in Nizhnekolymsk, who continue to live on an eroding riverbank despite the gradual destruction of their homes; on Ruslan Sleptsov and his son Nikita, part of a family lineage of hunters, fishermen and state wildlife inspectors; and on daily life in Pokhodsk, where fishing continues to sustain the village even as schools shrink and the population ages.

Across the region, transport has become more difficult, younger generations leave, and old ways of living along the river are slowly disappearing. But the people who remain continue to fish, work, teach, care for their families and hold on to their homes.

The project is personal to me: I grew up in northern Yakutia, and this landscape is part of my own memory. The title comes from a phrase I heard during the journey: "People forget people. " Through this work, I want to speak about those who are rarely seen — not as victims of disappearance, but as people whose lives, dignity and memories still matter.