The famous photographer and traveler in love with the republic told us what he would do in the republic until September, whether its work is noticed by the republic’s authorities and whether the tourism infrastructure of the region is changing for the better.
Schedule until Autumn
– You’ll be with us until very late autumn, right?
— Yes. Over the summer, I will have time to visit the Oymyakonsky Highlands, the Suntar-Hayat Ridge, rafting along the Amga, to go on a research expedition to the Ulakhan-Sis ridge. In early September, I plan a photo tour “Golden Autumn in Yakutia” – it will include the Lena Pillars, the Blue River and the Tukulans.
I’m not the first time you have, I often come here a lot. Without false modesty I can say that outside the borders of Yakutia I am a well-known representative.
— In your e-journal on the basis of the LiveJournal website (LJ) you write that for each of your trips you are recruiting a group of people. Is this already an established process or an innovation in your travels?
— This is a new story for me. You can say that with these tours I came to a new level, and maybe, on the contrary. Dialing groups of travelers, I try to show people Yakutia not simply with the help of photos and text, but already drawing directly here. With their photos and publications in LJ I awake in them interest in the region, and then I propose to go.
“His photographs and publications in LJ I awaken in people an interest in the region, and then offer to go.”
— Are you planning to develop this direction somehow?
— Of course, I already come up with other routes. I think over the winter options – do not confine yourself to one only in the summer, I want this project to be year-round. In general Yakutia for me from all my professional occupations is the region number one, although I do not confine myself to your republic.
— The cost of participation in each of your rounds is quite high and comparable to a good vacation abroad. Who is your average band member? Are they wealthy people or romantics?
— The composition is very different, and it is impossible to create any average portrait. Secured people also meet, but I will say so – most of the participants of my tours are going, seriously podzhal finance. These are the most real romantics in the classical sense of the word, but not the oligarchs.
“Official authorities do not notice me”
— It is clear that you have a fairly large archive of beautiful photographs of Yakutia. Do they often buy magazines and various media?
-This happens, but very rarely, you can not live on landscape pictures in our time. This is more of a hobby than earnings. Therefore, we have to look for other options.
Of course, it would be more interesting for me to get funding from outside and implement projects for studying Yakutia without being distracted by anything else. But for today I have to organize tours independently and along the way to fulfill my creative tasks. Here is such a compromise. Everyone would have won only if I had purposefully studied Yakutia, visualized it, created its image in the world and so on. This is more interesting for me, but so far I do not see any options.
-Have you tried to get such financing from the state or any private investors?
Unfortunately, the official structures of the republic do not notice me at all. I tried to get in touch, but, apparently, we need some personal relationships to make things work. When ex-vice-president of the republic Dmitry Glushko still lived and worked in Yakutia, I corresponded with him about the possible support, but he did not go further than promises, although he knows me and my projects quite well.
– Did you work with local travel companies?
— Yes, I worked with the local travel company Nord Wind, they helped me in organizing tours and the result was not bad. However, I confess honestly, the request for tourism in Yakutia is very small – it is difficult to get people and most of the tours are not 100% completed.
— The management of this company could not become an intermediary between you and the government of the republic?
— Unfortunately, they do not have such connections. They, perhaps, themselves would not mind to have such support, but no.
— You did not try to generate some loud media reasons yourself on your own to be talked about?
— Last year I discovered the unique landscape of Ulahan-Sis in the Arctic Yakutia, in the Indigirka basin. This is an amazing place, which definitely will be included in the list of world masterpieces.
The first photo expedition there was held in July 2016, but there are still many unexplored, these are entire cities of granite, and they are of natural origin. Being among these streets and quarters, it is impossible to get rid of the feeling of their man-madeness.
Photographs from this place made a furor, including outside of Russia. However, it is difficult to continue to open such amazing places alone and without support.
Olenek: from the source to the mouth
— And how does your family relate to the absence of a pope at home for many months?
— It is normal, they have adapted me. My wife is a geologist by education, like her father, so she grew up in a family where this was the norm. Well, my children initially grew up with such a dad and normally treat all this.
— Do you remember the moment when you heard about Yakutia for the first time?
— Naturally, I heard about the republic at school for the first time. For some reason, it even occurred to me that when the geography class was told about Yakutia, the Olenek River was mentioned. I remember that moment – I had something click in my brain and “Oh, I want to pass this river”.
I do not remember the details, but I seemed to have a foresight, that something serious will be connected with this river. And then, already grown up, I went all this river alone, from the source to the mouth.
“Here, mass tourism can kill the primordial nature. But it is the property of the republic, after all.”
— You are quite an experienced traveler. And whether there were cases in your practice when you, perhaps, through absent-mindedness, something inadvertently, just like a beginner?
— Yes, the last such incident occurred just the other day – forty-degree Yakut summer caught me off guard, and I received a sunburn on the river Sinai. Before that, I traveled almost always along the northern part of Yakutia, and this time I was in the central part of Yakutia. In general, I feel bad about the heat. It took almost a week to be treated in Yakutsk. So, despite all the accumulated experience, this sometimes happens.
About mass tourism
— According to your words, tourist traffic in the region is weak. Is it possible to somehow increase it?
— One gets the feeling that there is no will in the republic for the development of many brands of the region, bestowed by nature itself and national traditions. The only thing that is moving forward is the Lena Pillars, as if there is nothing more here. This is the first and only association of any person from the outside to the word “Yakutia”. In the republic it is the same.
Yes, there is a lot of money in PR, but it could be a little redistributed. Interesting places in Yakutia are much larger. On the other hand, it can be even good. Here, mass tourism can kill the primeval nature. And she, after all, is the property of the republic.
In the Omulyovo middle mountains, near the base. Behind the lake is the Great Darpier and Ulakhan-Chistai Ridge
Unpotographed Russia
— You traveled a lot around our country. Yakutia is a unique region or is it something similar to its neighbors?
– Russia is a country that is rich in vast pristine territories, not explored in many ways. So yes, Yakutia, Chukotka and other Far Eastern regions are united by the fact that the foot of a man there though and walked, but very, very little. And in terms of visualizing the work there is no end.
I think that Russia is in this sense the most not shot country in the world, although in the last 20 years serious progress has been made here. For many of our photographers to go abroad is much cheaper than traveling around Russia. Therefore, there are not many enthusiasts.
— What are the top 3 interesting places in the republic from Sergey Karpukhin?
— It is quite difficult, the region is very rich in such things. Let’s do it: the river is Indigirka, the mountains are the Chersky Range, the landscape is Ulahan-Sis. Yakutia in general is interesting primarily because it is still possible to make discoveries. And I feel that I have not done the main thing yet.
Translation: Google
Source: The Republican Social and Political Newspaper “Yakutia”
