Photographs from the serie Civil Courage:


Elena as a woman who took only one day off work as a receptionist at the naval officers’ house in Murmansk to bury her son, who suffocated to death in the ill-fated submarine Kursk, probably soon after August 12th, 2000.


Ieva as a woman who came to rake the yard of her burnt-out home so as to be able to leave for the city with dignity, although without her belongings or a place to stay.  


Kosti as a man who after four years and ten months of daily visits to his wife’s grave has decided to stay home and let go.



Lisa as a woman who carries her child to safety over fields, as her car and the roads have been buried knee-deep in snow that has fallen during the night.



Misha as a man who signed a two-year contract with no holidays, far away from his family, because there had been no work available at home for years, and because his daughter had recently become ill and needed expensive medical care.



Oleg and Slava as young men who, having become brothers in an orphanage, have decided not to get separated by any of the misfortunes the world has to offer and who are now continuing their shared lives at the Academy of the Red Fleet.



Remi as a man who is looking at a death mask, the only remaining image of his great grandmother.



Ritva as a woman who some three weeks after her husband’s death and at the time of the first snow has decided to live on in their little house at the edge of the forest from where no neighbours’ lights can be seen at night.



Sergey as a man who has moved to mine coal in the Arctic, in a place that has a history, but no future, since life where he grew up now had even less meaning.



Stéphane as a man and a practicing pathologist who has decided to donate his body to science after his death.



Veijo as a man who, having reduced the land belonging to a sizeable mansion to no more than a small, overgrown garden around the house by drinking, has now decided to change the course of his life, and is decorating his home for Christmas and hoping his children will come to visit.



Vera as a woman who has added a photograph of her fiancé, who went missing without trace while defending Ukraine against the occupying German army in 1942, to the other pictures of soldiers killed in battle on the Wall of Heroes that she has been showing to museum visitors for the last 22 years.



Enquiries:
Raoul Grünstein, raoul.grunstein@korjaamo.fi