Photographers Fyodor Telkov and Sergey Poteryaev have spent the past few years chronicling the changes taking place in Russia, in particular the people and customs that are fast becoming obsolete.

In the globalisation era the problem of coexistence of cultures and civilizations is more acute than ever. As countries develop, their expanding economies and industries often penetrate territories inhabited by people of different cultures.

In the Russian Federation these processes are especially evident in the northern and north-eastern regions where the territory expansion continues to the present day. Inevitably, life of the native people is intervened, traditional life patterns are altered, which in its turn leads to the gradual dying-out of their cultures. According to the 2010 Population Census in Russia there live 44 640 of Nenets, 38 396 of Evenkis, 30 943 of Khanty, 12 269 of Mansi, 3 649 of Selkups. Today some of the northern native peoples go back to their traditional way of life – reindeer breeding, others tend to the settled life in towns and villages thus forming a new life pattern. While peoples with traditional behaviours are well known to the ethnographers, journalists and documentarists, the others stay yet unstudied.

The process of transition from the traditional life patterns to the new ones is very versatile and ever changing, so it is very important to register certain stages of this transition of the native people to the “urban” life, to catch the moment when traditional habits and amenities of the modern society coexist and are equally important for the people.

– Discover more of Fyodor & Sergey’s work here: Fyodor Telkov / Sergey Poteryaev