The Russian Lower Leagues
From Borodinsky to Zakamsk, one photographer's journey through the backwaters of the Russian game
Sergey Novikov has spent much of the past four years travelling through Russia photographing amateur football. He works for culta.ru and Grassroots is a project he has funded himself in his spare time. "For me it's always interesting to look at what surrounds the stadium," he said in an interview with the Moscow Times. "How does it fit into the landscape? The stadiums in the Tver region are often surrounded by concrete blocks. In the village of Pryazha in the Karelia region, they built a wooden fence around the pitch as though it were a fortress."
Games Novikov has tried to photograph have often been called off at short notice, usually because teams lack the funding to travel. On one occasion he was asked to play after a player fell ill. He's been to two closed cities in Murmansk with minders to make sure the football was all he was photographing. In Crimea, he's been accused of being a spy. But he's kept going through the difficulties and hopes to produce a book from his project before the 2018 World Cup, documenting the remarkable variety of life outside Russia's biggest cities.
Fedino, Moscow region, 2013
Lazarevskoe, Krasnodar region, 2014
Mtsensk, Orel region, 2015
Olenegorsk, Murmansk region, 2012
Polyarny, Murmansk region, 2013
Kurganinsk, Krasnodar region, 2014
Totma, Vologda region, 2014
Beloomut, Moscow region, 2013
Bologoe, Tver region, 2013
Zakamsk, Perm, 2015
Tuapse, Krasnodar region, 2014
Kachkanar, Sverdlovsk oblast, 2015
Lytkarino, Moscow region, 2016
Helyla, Karelia, 2013
ZATO Krasnoznamensk, Moscow region, 2015
Borodinsky, Tula region, 2014
Solga, Arkhangelsk region, 2016
Troitsk, Moscow, 2012
Valday, Novgorod region, 2013
Istra, Moscow region, 2013
Gubkin, Belgorod region, 2013
Tsivilsk, Chuvash republic, 2014
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