Markov’s vision can’t be understood without going back to his days as a kid, to what the 1990s meant to him – the years of addiction, the time following the ‘social downshifting’ lifestyle, or his experiences as a volunteer. His childhood and teenage days were inscribed within an era where the ‘natural’ order of things changed; the paradigm shifted. He’s part of the early post-soviet generation, and those days were full of mystery and adventures – far from being supervised by adults.
“Now that I am grown up, I assume it might have appeared plain wrong – hanging out god knows where, occasionally breaking arms and sniffing glue”, says Dmitry. “It seems extraordinary nowadays, when the police would start a file on a hefty 14-year-old for staying out after midnight. But that was the way everyone lived, and it seemed a regular boy’s life”, he continues. Soon, he would get into drugs, which turned his life into chaos but, ironically, led him to photography. “As I again attempted to quit, it occurred to me that I should find a hobby to take my mind off sad thoughts and depression”, he confesses from those blurry days.
Photography was his reason to be sober then, and now, he’s presenting #Draft #Russia, a compilation of sixty photographs where he documents the daily life in the Russian province of Pskov, a sort of mirror reflecting on himself while also portraying human vulnerability, addiction, and innocence. We see kids playing on the streets, taking a bath at a lake or sleeping in trains. Young boys shaving their friends’ heads. People on strike. Or people inside of a church. Sailors, militaries, farmers. The countryside life, a glimpse of the city life and how people interact and move around.