Sergei Karpukhin: “Yakutia is number one for me. “Ural Photographers”: Sergey Karpukhin The main goals of our project

A famous photographer and traveler in love with the republic told us what he will be doing in the republic until September, whether the authorities of the republic notice his work and whether the tourism infrastructure of the region is changing for the better.

Schedule until autumn
-You will be with us until late autumn, right?
- Yes. Over the summer I will have time to visit the Oymyakon Highlands, the Suntar-Khayata ridge, rafting along the Amga, and go on a research expedition to the Ulakhan-Sis ridge. At the beginning of September I am planning a photo tour “Golden Autumn in Yakutia” - it will include the Lena Pillars, the Sinyaya River and the tukulans.
This is not my first time visiting you, I come here often and a lot. Without false modesty, I can say that outside the borders of Yakutia I am a well-known representative.
-In your electronic diary based on the LiveJournal (LJ) website, you write that for each of your trips you recruit a group of people. Is this an already established process or an innovation in your travels?
-This is a fairly new story for me. You could say that with these tours I reached a new level, or maybe vice versa. When recruiting groups of travelers, I try to show people Yakutia not just with the help of photographs and text, but by attracting them directly here. With my photographs and publications in LiveJournal, I arouse their interest in the region, and then I suggest they go.

“With my photographs and publications in LiveJournal, I awaken people’s interest in the region, and then I suggest they go.”

-Do you plan to further develop this direction?
- Of course, I’m already thinking of other routes. I’m thinking about winter options - I shouldn’t limit myself to just summer, I want this project to be year-round. In general, Yakutia is the number one region for me among all my professional occupations, although I am not limited only to your republic.
-The cost of participation in each of your tours is quite high and comparable to a good holiday abroad. Who is your average band member? Are these wealthy people or romantics?
-The composition is very different, and it is impossible to create some kind of average portrait. Wealthy people also meet, but I will say this - most of the participants in my tours travel with their finances seriously strapped. These are real romantics in the classical sense of the word, but not oligarchs.

“The official bodies don’t notice me”
-It’s clear that you have quite a large archive of beautiful photographs of Yakutia. Are they often bought by magazines and various media?
-This happens, but very rarely; you can’t live on landscape photographs these days. It's more of a hobby than a living. Therefore, we have to look for other options.
Of course, it would be more interesting for me to receive funding from outside and implement projects to study Yakutia, without being distracted by anything else. But today I am forced to organize tours on my own and simultaneously fulfill my creative tasks. This is the compromise. Everyone would benefit if I purposefully studied Yakutia, visualized it, created its image in the world, and so on. This is more interesting for me, but so far I don’t see any options.
-Have you tried to get such financing from the state or any private investors?
-Unfortunately, the official structures of the republic do not notice me at all. I tried to get in touch, but apparently some kind of personal relationship is needed for things to go forward. When the former vice-president of the republic, Dmitry Glushko, still lived and worked in Yakutia, I corresponded with him about possible support, but things did not go beyond promises, although he knows me and my projects quite well.
-Have you worked with local travel companies?
-Yes, I collaborated with the local travel company Nord Wind, they helped me organize tours and the result was good. However, I must admit honestly, the demand for tourism in Yakutia is very small - it is difficult to recruit people and most tours are not 100% filled.
-The management of this company was unable to become an intermediary between you and the government of the republic?
-Unfortunately, they do not have such connections. They themselves might not mind having such support, but no.
-Have you tried to independently generate any high-profile media events to get people talking about you?
-Last year I discovered the unique landscape of Ulakhan-Sis in polar Yakutia, in the Indigirka basin. This is an amazing place that will definitely be included in the list of world masterpieces.
The first photo expedition there was carried out in July 2016, but there is still a lot of unknown there, these are entire cities made of granite, and they are of natural origin. Being among these streets and neighborhoods, it is impossible to get rid of the feeling of their man-made nature.
Photos from this place created a certain sensation, including outside Russia. However, continuing to discover such amazing places alone and without support is quite difficult.

Olenek: from source to mouth
-How does your family feel about dad’s absence from home for many months?
- It’s normal, they are adapted to me. My wife is a geologist, like her father, so she grew up in a family where this was the norm. Well, my children initially grew up with such a dad and are normal about all this.
-Do you remember the moment when you heard about Yakutia for the first time?
- Naturally, I first heard about the republic at school. For some reason, it even stuck in my head that when they talked about Yakutia in a geography lesson, the Olenek River was mentioned. I remember that moment - it was as if something clicked in my brain and “Oh, I want to walk along this river.”
I don’t remember the details, but it was as if I had a premonition that something serious would be connected with this river. And then, as an adult, I walked this entire river alone, from source to mouth.

“Here, mass tourism can kill the pristine nature. But she is the property of the republic.”

-You are quite an experienced traveler. Have there been any cases in your practice when, perhaps out of absent-mindedness, you overlooked something, just like a beginner?
-Yes, the last such incident happened just the other day - the forty-degree Yakut summer took me by surprise, and I got a sunburn on the Sinaya River. Before this, I almost always traveled in the northern part of Yakutia, but this time I was in the central part. And in general, I don’t have a good attitude towards heat. I had to undergo treatment in Yakutsk for almost a week. So, despite all the experience gained, this sometimes happens.

About mass tourism
-According to you, tourist traffic in the region is weak. Is it possible to somehow increase it?
- One gets the feeling that in the republic there is no will to develop the many brands in the region, bestowed by nature itself and national traditions. The only thing that is moving forward is the Lena Pillars, as if there is nothing else here. This is the first and only association of any person from the outside with the word “Yakutia”. It's the same in the republic itself.
Yes, a lot of money is invested in PR, but they could be redistributed a little. There are many more interesting places in Yakutia. On the other hand, this may even be good. Here mass tourism can kill the pristine nature. But she is the property of the republic.

Next Saturday March 4 at 15.00 The Classic Photography Gallery will host a creative meeting with photographer and travel blogger Sergei Karpukhin.

The era of great geographical discoveries has passed and, it seems, there is no longer any space left on the map that can be painted over. But what if you combine geography and landscape photography?

A limitless field for activity and real discoveries will open up for you. In the vast territories of our country, there are still many blank spots left for photographers, and for everyone else who visualizes space.

Here you can discover completely new objects that can rank with the world's landscape masterpieces. The problem is not that, in fact, no one knows about them, but that no one has yet shown these landscape objects professionally.

This will be discussed at a creative meeting with landscape photographer, traveler, member of the Russian Geographical Society and author of the photo expedition project “Unknown Landscapes of Russia” Sergei Karpukhin.

The key topic of the meeting will be a discussion of the results of photogeographic research into hard-to-reach and little-studied territories, the visual appearance of which is practically unknown to the vast majority of the planet’s inhabitants. It will include a series of photographs of the unique outlier landscape of the Ulakhan-Sis ridge between the Indigirka and Alazeya rivers (Yakutia), taken by Karpukhin in 2016.

Participants will be treated to a fascinating story about the author’s most significant photographic expeditions in hard-to-reach regions of Russia (Yakutia, Magadan region, Putorana Plateau, Olenyok River, Podkamennaya and Lower Tunguska, Evenkia, etc.). Sergey will also talk about the features of organizing photo expeditions and photo tours in areas that are not included in generally recognized trends. The meeting program includes communication with guests, during which the photographer will answer their questions.

Ticket prices: full - 300 rubles, preferential: 200 rubles - for schoolchildren and students, 150 rubles - for pensioners and disabled people.
Inquiries by phone: +7 495 510-77-13.

A few years ago, photographer, blogger and traveler Sergei Karpukhin saw photographs of a friend of the Yakut biologist Alexander Krivoshapkin (also known as Dersu), which he took directly through the airplane window during an aerial survey of the wild reindeer population in polar Yakutia. This inaccessible territory is called the Ulakhan-Sis ridge. Sergey visited a unique place and shared rare footage with us.

This is a low hill, which stretches in a narrow strip from west to east between the Indigirka and Alazeya rivers. What I saw in the photographs blew my mind. Right in the middle of the tundra, along the smooth ridges of the hill, there were rows of stone sculptures of the most varied shapes. Naturally, this miracle of nature became a dream and goal for me. There was practically no information; it was only clear that the area was difficult to access and any expedition would be expensive. For several years I did not know how to approach this problem, but then I decided to act.

The main thing in this matter, as always, is the financial issue. I couldn’t think of anything better than announcing the project on a crowdfunding platform. People responded, but not enough to raise the entire required amount. Here I must explain that the original version envisaged the expedition to be carried out in April. This would make it possible to reach the designated area by snowmobile, which is located a hundred kilometers from the nearest settlement of the village of Andryushkino. True, Andryushkino itself is a place cut off from civilization, although at this time of year you can at least get there along the winter road, but in summer it simply does not exist.

However, we also had a backup option in case the collection of money was not very successful. The fact is that these very remains that I saw in the photographs are concentrated in the eastern part of Ulakhan-Sis, and it is really very far to get there. But I’ve been looking at maps for a long time and discovered that in the western part of Ulakhan-Sis there is a similar area, at least along a two-kilometer road there are also triangles scattered there, precisely indicating outcrops. Dersu confirmed that he flew in this part of Ulakhan-Sis and also saw remnants, which, perhaps, are not inferior to the eastern massif, although he did not take a single photograph there. This was a backup option, an area just as unknown, but somewhat more accessible, and accessible specifically in the summer. And all because it is located not so far from Indigirka, although it is just as far from populated areas as the first one. But you can sail along the Indigirka, and the remnant massif is only thirty kilometers from the river.

The matter of raising money ended with the fact that the original version became completely impossible, and even the backup one could only be partially financed. However, it's better than nothing. Nevertheless, we had to invent something else. My other project in Yakutia, a commercial tour that I conducted in the Momsky district, helped reduce costs.

To get to the western massif, you need to walk 30 kilometers from the non-residential geological village of Pokhvalny, which is located on the right bank of the Indigirka. And you can get to Pokhvalny by self-rafting from the nearest settlement Belaya Gora, and this is about 200 kilometers up the river. Or you can take a motor boat up from Chokurdakh, which is located 200 kilometers down the river. These two settlements are connected by air to Yakutsk. But since the mentioned tour took place in the Moma district, and this is much higher along Indigirka (more precisely, 600 kilometers from Pokhvalny), there was no point in returning after the tour from Moma to Yakutsk, and then flying to Belaya Gora. Therefore, there was only one way out: board a catamaran and row down these same 600 kilometers. And in order to leave the route, after the main part, that is, after visiting the desired area, it was necessary to go down the river to Chokurdakh another 200 kilometers, from where you can get out by plane to Yakutsk.

Unfortunately, Dersu was unable to participate in the summer version because he had other plans for this period. Therefore, there was a need to find accomplices. I would go alone, it never stopped me, but it’s still very awkward to go alone on a catamaran. One would have to go in a kayak, and along a large river, where there are strong winds and storms, this is also not very convenient. There were those who wanted it; in the process of preparing the expedition, up to five people were recruited, but the closer we got to the task, the fewer there were, and in the end there was only one left. But he went with me to the end. This is Dmitry Reznichenko from Krasnodar. So the success of the expedition is also his merit.

My tour ended on June 21st. On this day, I escorted all six of its participants onto the plane and met from the same plane the only accomplice of the upcoming expedition. There was no reason to stay in the village, the food was prepared, the wooden frame from the catamaran, which previous fighters had already tested, was waiting in the bushes. All that remained was, with the help of my Mom friends, to deliver everything else to the shore, inflate the gondolas of the catamaran, tie them to the frame, put the catamaran on the water and tie the entire prop to our ship. So if for me one trip flowed into another almost without an interval, then for the newly arrived Dima it was like leaving a ship to a ball, or rather, just the opposite. We had uncertainty and a month of time ahead of us. We took tickets from Chokurdakh to Yakutsk, where the route ended, for July 22nd.

On the very first day, just relaxing on the catamaran, we walked along the fast current for about forty kilometers. And we still managed to climb the mountain, after setting up camp and having dinner, to photograph Indigirka in the sunset light. I think it was two o'clock in the morning. On the same day we crossed the Arctic Circle; it runs about fifteen kilometers north of Khonuu and is not marked in any way on the ground.

At the beginning of the journey, the Indigrka flows among the Mom Mountains. These are beautiful places, I have already been here, both in the summer on a kayak and motor boat, and in the winter by car. But the mountains ended quickly, and we were left alone with the plain. True, even on the flat section Indigirka turned out to be not as slow as I expected. If there was no wind, our catamaran traveled three to four kilometers, or even more, per hour without rowing.

We spent most of our time on the catamaran and quickly got used to it. There was enough space - of course, the catamaran is designed for four, and there are only two of us. Most often, we didn’t even touch the shore even once during the day: we had a thermos of tea and a prepared snack for lunch. And in the evening, the search for a suitable place to spend the night sometimes dragged on for several hours and many kilometers. Every day we switched sides to somehow change the tension on muscle groups. I had to row constantly. I remember I even had to use an elastic bandage, but the tendons couldn’t stand it on the bends of my arms.
Along this entire six-hundred-kilometer route, there were only two settlements on the banks of the Indigirka. The first one is Kabergene. There was no need to stop here. In April, when I was driving along the winter road, I stopped here for a short time.
Once upon a time, the village of Druzhina stood even lower on the left bank. Here, a fuel and lubricants warehouse operated for passing river vessels. But now everything is abandoned, no one lives in the village. However, next to the empty tanks there is still a residential building in which we spent one night. There was no one here except us.

Well, then there was White Mountain. This is, one might say, a port village. There is a transshipment base here and there are many ships, some have already stopped permanently, and some are still working. When we entered the village, Dima’s boots were torn, so he had to buy new ones.

We arrived in Pokhvalny a little earlier than the end of the day on July 2. They approached the shore very successfully: the only inhabitants of the village, Alevtina and Alexey, were just unloading the boat.
Pokhvalny was once a strong and healthy geological village. There were even shops and a school here. But now it is closed, and everything is falling into desolation and ruin. Thanks to the population of two people, some part of the village is still supported, and shelter can still be found here. We were very well received. We were placed in a separate house, and we were finally able to heat the bathhouse. On the third of July we had a day off and a day to prepare for the main part of the expedition. Then we need to go on foot to the treasured remains.

We began to see the remains long before we arrived in Pokhvalny. Probably fifty kilometers away, or a little less, we first noticed these rocky ridges on the tops of the hills some distance from the shores of Indigirka. This was already impressive, but it was unclear whether we were seeing everything or only a small part. How many of these remains are there anyway? The good news was that we covered 600 kilometers along Indigirka quite quickly, and we now had fifteen whole days left for the entire hike to the outcrops. A luxury I never expected.

On the morning of the Fourth of July we set out. The owners were still sleeping; in the Arctic in the summer, people usually shift their daily schedule, go to bed closer to the morning and get up no earlier than mid-day. But they were privy to our plans. And on this day, the relatively good weather, which had lasted all these ten days of rafting, began to deteriorate. They explained to us how to go. There is an all-terrain road here that is not so easy to find unless shown. So you need to walk along it for about fifteen kilometers, and then, without a road through the taiga, go out to the bare hills of the Ulakhan-Sis ridge and walk along the top to where you need to go. On this day we did not plan to go further than these fifteen kilometers. Alexey explained that there was a hut somewhere there, next to the road, where you could spend the night. That’s what they thought to do, and already on the second day they would move directly to the remains.

But it turned out that there were several parallel roads here, and we apparently went wrong somewhere and didn’t find the hut. And by the time these fifteen kilometers had passed, the weather had completely deteriorated and it was drizzling. We didn't want to stop in this weather, especially since we unexpectedly didn't spend much time walking. So we decided to walk a little more and stop somewhere there, somewhere out there, no one knows where. But there was no normal water anywhere else to make a stop. And we suddenly came close to the bare hills, and the first remains were already just a stone's throw away. And we climbed up, although we were frankly exhausted. The tent was set up right at the base of one of the outliers, who was immediately called the Old Man, he seemed to be in charge here. And they found water nearby. I never thought that we would reach the first remains in one day. But the weather was not only unsuitable for filming, but downright disgusting.

I liked the Pokhvalnensky remains. And I even thought that even if there was nothing there over the hill, then that was already quite a lot. Still, we hoped that we would find something wonderful to the south and east of the summit. It’s not for nothing that there are so many triangles drawn on the map. In the following days the weather gave some concessions, and we were able to somehow photograph this granite city. But the weather could not be called stable, so on the morning of July 9th we decided to set out.
From a distance the path seemed quite smooth, but when we began to climb directly to the top, it became clear that this was not the way to walk here. The whole mountain is littered with kurumnik, it’s impossible to walk normally, you have to jump from boulder to boulder and control every step. Dima at that time was walking a little to the left, or rather, a little to the east beyond the bend. And then I saw his beaming face and his thumb raised up. Ten steps towards him, I saw it too. And this was an extended stone wall, consisting of densely standing individual outcrops right on the top of the hill even further to the east, far beyond the ravine. To the right of the wall, individual outcrops and groups lined up in a row. "Wow! Chinese Wall!" - this is the first thing I said. This is how this city got its name.

What we saw immediately plunged me into a state of euphoria. Yes, there is a miracle! Now it is clear that everything was not in vain. Now we had to go down, and maybe even reach this wall, in order to understand where we could base ourselves here. A little lower we came to a lonely remnant on the slope of peak 588, where we obviously needed to take some pictures. It is clear that this was not a simple remnant on the slope of the dominant peak, it seems to be responsible for all the surrounding cities, and how many of them there are was not yet clear. And he was given a name - Watchman. Then, as luck would have it, another burst of rain came from a cloud, but I had already put the tripod in the firing position. I figured that if now the sun peeks out from behind this local cloud, then we will find ourselves right between the sun and Storozhev, and then a rainbow may well light up right above it... Yes! It might not be that bright, but there was a rainbow. And this means that the Watchman is ready to let us into his kingdom. The territory of granite civilizations has opened up to us.

About some of our heroes from headings "Ural" I think with longing - why haven’t we met in real life yet? Nose Sergei Karpukhin everything is clear - he is always on the road, and even in places where you might not even meet people in 40 days.

Sergey generously shared a photo with us for books, and I am especially grateful to him for the fact that this happened during one of the darkest periods in the preparation of the book. Follow Sergei’s work and his expeditions - I’m just incredibly jealous Karpukhin- he saw our Russia in the most beautiful and incredibly distant places.

Karpukhin Sergey born in 1962 in village of Nordovka, Meleuzovsky district Bashkiria. In 1986 he graduated from the Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute.

He began traveling actively in 1981. During the first ten years, these were mainly trips related to sports caving. During this period, many deep vertical caves were traversed in the Caucasus, Crimea, Primorye and the Austrian Alps. At the same time, he participated in geological expeditions in the Sayan Mountains, Kamchatka, and Primorye.

In the period from 1991 to 1996, several independent expeditions were carried out for various tourist and research purposes in Altai, Transbaikalia, Yakutia, the Sayan Mountains and the Putorana Plateau.

In 1997, 1999 and 2000, a cycle of three unique, completely autonomous expeditions was carried out - "5000 kilometers alone", connected into one route - along the Lower Tunguska River, the Evenkia river system and the Olenyok River, which made it possible to cross the entire Central Siberian Plateau. This route was completed alone, without any connection with the outside world, using a light kayak. The total length of the entire route was about 5,000 kilometers, and the total duration of all three journeys was about 150 days. Here a personal record was set - 40 days in a row without meeting a person on the route. There were similar trips alone in other regions of Russia.

I have been interested in photography since childhood. But in the nineties, the time gradually came for a professional approach to this type of work, mainly in the landscape genre. In the new millennium, the main purpose of all travel was finally determined - photography.

In the subsequent period, many photographic expeditions of varying degrees of complexity were organized and carried out in almost all regions of Russia. But mainly in the eastern part of the country. Special attention Yakutia, the largest administrative unit of Russia. Ural, is also one of the main regions for photographic research, from Southern before Polar.

The central part of the author's concept is the research mission. That is, the main focus is not on popular photographic locations, but on the search for new ones, and not on the development of others, but on the creation of our own photographic and landscape brands in new areas. In areas little visited and even frankly difficult to access, most of which have received virtually no attention from professional photographers.

Perhaps, at the moment, the pinnacle of the author’s search can be considered the discovery of a hitherto unknown unique remnant landscape in the ridge Ulakhan-Sis, in the interfluve Indigirki And Alazei in the Arctic Yakutia. Without any reservations, this is a world-class landscape masterpiece. And it is a great success, in the third millennium, when there are no more blank spots left, to open something like this to the world.

In addition, creative development is currently taking place in a new direction, in the direction of organizing trips of varying levels of complexity for other people, for travelers not only experienced, but also beginners.

And he also writes excellently: “Sometimes I wonder how different the perception of an image must be between the author and an outside viewer. Another photographer will appreciate the composition, technical quality, light, post-processing, the viewer will simply say “wow, how beautiful” or “nothing special,” depending on his mood or some of his associations. But in fact, no one will have the same emotions that the author has when looking at his own creation. After all, only the author knows and remembers those emotions and sensations that connect him with that reality, with the moment when this image was created.

It seems like, well, what’s so special about this photo - winter, snow, mountains, some kind of fence, probably on the outskirts of the village, either dawn or sunset. But in fact, it’s not winter at all, it’s only the tenth of September and the nearest housing is 160 kilometers away, and all around are absolutely uninhabited, wild places in the Chersky Mountains. And three months into the expedition are already behind us. But we live in tents, and it has been snowing non-stop for two days now. And now we have been waiting for a week for the musher from the village to bring the horses for us. And today is exactly the day when, without waiting for the musher, we set ourselves the day when we will leave here on our own in any weather. And ahead there is complete uncertainty, knee-deep snow and 160 kilometers of difficult travel through snow-covered passes.

That day we agreed to get up early; at night there was almost no sleep, as usually happens when there is too much in your head. I left the tent in a gloomy state of mind, cold snow was still falling down my collar just like yesterday, but dawn was breaking in the east. And it was not clear whether this was just a slight relaxation, or whether the weather would improve. Usually this is what happens when you have absolutely no time for it, just the state of nature arises for which you are hunting and you definitely need to get ready, take a tripod and camera and go shoot. And it doesn’t matter that you are so uncomfortable right now and that animals are scratching with their claws in your soul. Yes, but is it really possible to convey all this through the most seemingly ordinary picture, which is not at all about that. That's how reality works. There’s nothing good or bad about it, it’s just the way it is.”