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The photographer Julia Smorodova got acquainted to these people via one of the newspaper of her native Tver Region.
Julia Smorodova
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A village club “Truzhenik” is located in the village with the same name not far from Tver.
Julia Smorodova
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With a little help from the director of the local House of Culture, she found the contacts and visited the "Truzhenik" (which is "Slogger" in Russian) during a rehearsal.
Julia Smorodova
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When she arrived there, she wondered: “This collective is rather famous in Tver, they participate in various local feasts, their shows are prepared pretty thoroughly…”
Julia Smorodova
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All of this is made by members of the collective themselves: without any precise aim, without money, without any support. The only motivation is to express their creativity.
Julia Smorodova
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These people are “creating a holiday.” They are not paid for it. They sew suits and make their fellow villagers happy.
Julia Smorodova
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This is how the women prepare for the show dedicated to Defenders of the Fatherland Day, for example...
Julia Smorodova
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Since then, Julia has visited "Truzhenik" a few times, taking pictures of their self-professed but still nice and heartfelt performances.
Julia Smorodova
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The actors are common people: a village teacher, a postman, a cleaning woman. They all act here together and, maybe because of that, have rare qualities for actors – absence of pomposity and vanity.
Julia Smorodova
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Maybe because of these rare qualities the songs sung here are simple and understandable. The rustle of skirts, the children`s laughter, sounds of the accordion and tea from the samovar – all of this together says a lot, but only in the span of a 45-minute concert.
Julia Smorodova
