Grozny

Standing below the shoulders of Giants

Grozny, Cechnia's capital.
Nothing ever leaves the watchful, apparently sympathetic eyes of Ramzan Akhmedovic Kadyrov, the one and only owner of this Republic.

Grozny stadium

The Sultan Bilimkhanov footbal stadium in Grozny, on a very eerie lonely, foggy and silent day.

New Grozny, old traditions

A veiled mother with her daughter walk on Grozny's wide sidewalks.

All a matter of perspective

Grozny's market and unofficial bus station seen from afar.

Swiping in good company

Akhmad Kadyrov, long dead, still on watch while road cleaners mop the never ending dust of Grozny's roads.

A narrow path between past and future.

The old styled heating pipes on the right, still with their scent of soviet planning, contast starkly with the black luxurious fence that guards the Colosseum Arena, on the left.
The juxtaposition seems to suggest how thin is the path between tradition and future the cechens walk, and how the two visions inexorably converge.

Waiting for the bus

Everyday life in the bus station

Walking in good company

Youngsters walk and chat "protected" by the "powerful team" on the poster, Ramzan Kadirov and one of his political aides.

Grozny landscape

The city seen from one of the skyscrapers, the pride of Grozny

Landscape Caucasus 1

Parallels converging at infinity

Grozny's roads getting lost through fog in the distance.

A flock of pure beauty

Female traditional chechen dancers in one of the figures.
They resamble birds flying in V formation during migration.

Odd one out

Female chechen traditional dancers caught mid performance.
The odd one out is not only beautiful, but has piercing eyes that show no embarrass, no timidity, just a detached resolution.

The stage is all mine

Leading chechen traditional dancer offering himself to the camera after training.
Despite being so minute in person, and on stage, his pride borders on haughtiness, as if he could command the entire stage, and audience, by himself.
In a way, he epithomizes the chechen people: limited in numbers, but always ready to fight till the last drop of blood for their traditions and pride.

Taming the albedo

A darkly dressed lady crossing a road, and appears like a sun spot on the light bathed scene.

Composition with altar and old man

Inside is faith, and outside it looks like spring

An old man prays alone in the mosque facing a wall, while outside the late autumn feels like early spring.

It makes you feel small

Another old man in the mosque, praying in isolation.

Moon, star, and empty roads

Pipelines

Local youth, wide spaces

Ladies and mosque

It doesn't feel lonely

A lady praying in the upper floor of Grozny's "Heart of Chechnya" mosque.

Taming the albedo

A darkly dressed lady crossing a road, and appears like a sun spot on the light bathed scene.