Quiet Waters: The River of Untroubled Childhood in Andrey Lomakin’s Project

A ten-year-old boy was drowning. He was not afraid anymore. The green locks of the water plants were flowing before his eyes. The sun was at its highest, and its light was piercing right through the river. The stream wrapped its soft arms around him and pressed him to the river bed. The boy felt warm and calm. And suddenly someone’s hand harshly grabbed my hair and at once pulled me out of the water. My Grandma was scared, and I was disappointed that it all ended like this. Time stopped when I inhaled, and a dull summer steppe landscape drew tears from my eyes with acrid dust. This world was different. Not that cosy and harsh.

The river became my shelter for years. You barely hear the rumble of the outside world here, your thoughts are clear, and the people I have met here are open and kind, as if the river water washes all troubles and cares off them, so that they could bring back the quiet and untroubled state of my childhood.

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Text and photo credits Andrey Lomakin.