The man who took these pictures died two years ago, at the age of 73. His name was Nikolay Zykov and he was a village photographer.

Born of peasant parents in the village of Istobensk (70 kms from Kirov, the regional centre), as a young man he traveled for a while (undertaking army service and a short visit to the Russian "capital of culture" - the city of Leningrad) , but soon came back to his natural home. He didn't receive any regular education and didn't formally study photography; but he was an inspired amateur. Life in a Soviet "kolkhoz" was poor and not abundant in culture. Zykov did the same agricultural work as everyone else, was paid little money and spent this on books and vinyl records. He read Japanese poetry (translated into Russian) and listened to classical music - not a typical pastime for a Russian village. Together with his wife and 8 children he worked on their own piece of land and he shot the life that passed by. He has left behind a whole bookcase of films and prints. It is a Proust-like story of a human time seen from the window of a country-house; a personal story set in history. Soviet provincial life of the 1970s and 1980s, scenes of nature, the faces of his family and other village folk, genre scenes and impressions - flowers at the misty window; grass caught in a bicycle wheel; the silhouette of a magpie over an autumn garden.

Zykov used different analogue cameras and processed all the films himself at home. In the last years of his life he made many A3 prints from his old negatives. Some of them were once exhibited in the local museum, and local TV tried to make a biopic about him, but he quarreled with the TV team (he was not an easy-going person) and this turned instead into a picture about his children, contemporary "educated farmers". The real story of the man and his life was left untold.

Recently we have made a flickr account (approved by Zykov's heirs) in order represent some of the photographs. We would be glad to share more pictures and information to those who get interested in this story.

Oleg Green, graphic designer