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Tanya Sharapova’s debut book Kolsky is a photographic project about the Kola Peninsula in northwestern Russia. Bordering Finland and Norway, Kola is a strategically important and heavily militarised region, home to Russia’s Northern Fleet and major nuclear, military and industrial infrastructure. Fishing, oil, gas and mineral extraction are central to its economy, while its Soviet history has left a lasting mark on the region’s communities and environment.
Sharapova returned to the peninsula repeatedly from 2019 to 2024, witnessing a period of significant political and social change. Rather than presenting Kola simply as either a remote Arctic landscape or a symbol of contemporary Russia, Kolsky approaches it as a complex region shaped by overlapping historical and political forces. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, propaganda, self-censorship and social pressure became increasingly visible in everyday life. Through close relationships with the people she photographs, Sharapova allows her subjects to participate in shaping their own representations, creating images that move between the absurd, the unsettling and the intimate.
Tanya Sharapova’s debut book Kolsky is a photographic project about the Kola Peninsula in northwestern Russia. Bordering Finland and Norway, Kola is a strategically important and heavily militarised region, home to Russia’s Northern Fleet and major nuclear, military and industrial infrastructure. Fishing, oil, gas and mineral extraction are central to its economy, while its Soviet history has left a lasting mark on the region’s communities and environment.
Sharapova returned to the peninsula repeatedly from 2019 to 2024, witnessing a period of significant political and social change. Rather than presenting Kola simply as either a remote Arctic landscape or a symbol of contemporary Russia, Kolsky approaches it as a complex region shaped by overlapping historical and political forces. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, propaganda, self-censorship and social pressure became increasingly visible in everyday life. Through close relationships with the people she photographs, Sharapova allows her subjects to participate in shaping their own representations, creating images that move between the absurd, the unsettling and the intimate.