Kiev

In May of 2018 I went to Kiev for the first time to shoot at the events organized by Pepsi for the Champions League final. 

For most of my week-long stay I was busy working in the city center. As I moved from one place to the next, I tried to keep some time and concentration to myself to look for Kiev's alternative side, the one detached from the cola-infused, prosecco-sipping rich westerners with whom I was spending most of my day. In the most European among the capitals of former Soviet states, scrubbed clean for the event, I feverishly searched through the cracks of its opulence for a glimpse of that Soviet culture which populates our collective imagination, hardly ever finding it – and even if I did, it had the watered-down, touristic feel of postcards. So I was mainly fascinated by his architecture: Brutalism and Socialist Classicism, influenced by Art-déco (That's probably why, when I look at some of these pictures, I feel as if I went to Dallas)

So, searching the web, I discovered the existence of Troieshchyna, a neighbourhood situated on the other side of the Dnepr River, where the inhabitants lived a different, more authentic life isolated from the luxury of the city center. As all the locals I met during my stay had absolutely advised me against going there, I thought it was the right place to discover. I booked an Uber for my only free morning and asked the driver to take me for a ride around the neighbourhood. Once in a while we would stop, I would wander around following my intuition, and then we'd take off again. 

The result is a messy and certainly superficial vision of the context; but that's ok... this is it!

Troieshchyna

(Ukrainian: Троєщина) or since 1987 Vyhurivschyna-Troieshchyna (Ukrainian: Вигурівщина-Троєщина)

is a large neighborhood of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Troieshchyna is an outskirt located on the city’s northern left-bank and is administratively part of the Desnianskyi District.

The neighborhood is a large whole-planned bedroom district housing the population of at least 240,000 residents, but also includes a small industrial area. Troieshchyna only became part of Kiev municipality in 1988; prior to that it was a village of Kiev Oblast which still exists on the edge of the new neighborhood.

The area suffers from inadequate transport links to the rest of the city. Kiev City authorities have at one point decided on extending the Kiev Metro system to Troieshchyna, either through the proposed Livoberezhna line or the Podilsko-Vyhurivska line which is currently under construction. However, cost of building a new metro line was too high and the proposal was scrapped in favor of modernizing an existing light rail system.

source: Wikipedia