This is a print of a Jakut woman. It is one of 72 prints from the book: Costume of the Russian Empire, ... dedicated, by permission, to her Royal Highness the Princess Elisabeth, London 1803. PS. Click the image to enlarge.

Saying a lot of thanks to my Finish friend of mine, Fredrik Forsberg, who provided a book print scan copy and the A FEMALE YAKOUTI chapter text from the book “Costume of the Russian Empire.” And it was him, who colored his black-and-white print copy.

Further, please, read the chapter with information on the illustrated Yakut woman in a national costume.

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This time we proudly present another talented young artist from the Siberian region of Yakutia. It’s Anna Osipova (her page at ArtBreak.com).

Anna graduated the Far Eastern State Academy of Arts. Currently she creates her masterpieces at the Ural-Siberian studio of the Russian Academy of Artists. Her early works were inspired by the North and reindeer herders’ life. How it was strong, check yourself.

Below find Anna Osipova’s paintings. Read the rest of this entry…

These pictures are from Evgenia Arbugaeva‘s photo book “Following the Reindeer” (141 pages) that depicts the daily life of the Even reindeer herders in the mountain area around the settlement of Topolinoe in Tomponsky region (two days by a car from Yakutsk) in Russia’s Siberian republic of Yakutia.

Evgenia is a young photographer from Yakutsk. Currently, she lives in New York City. She is a graduate of the International Center of Photography.

A few months ago, she presented a few pics from her personal photo book “Following the Reindeer” and won the Lens Culture FotoFest Paris 2010 Blurb Photobook Prize. The prize will enable her to design, print, market and distribute her own photobook with Blurb.com, the online publishing-on-demand photobook company.

She is really a cool photographer. She dislikes work in the studio. She prefers to be on the field and make photo stories… and not like ordinary photo reportages, but as pieces of arts.

Evgenia, by the way, is the first local photographer, whom I featured online since 2002. Know her personally. Some her pictures might be seen on my old website YakutiaToday.com.

Below see more photographs of Siberian reindeer herders and their kids.

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Proudly present the “Artists of Yakutia & Self-Portraits” art exhibit taken place two months ago at the Yrgel art gallery in Yakutsk, Siberia/Russia.

Follow the link to see 42 paintings and installations in Ajar Varlamov’s pictures. Read the rest of this entry…

Platon Oyunsky statue on Orzhanikidze Square in Yakutsk. *To enlarge the image, click on it.

A book image of Platon Oyunsky

Always wanted to write about Platon Oyunsky, a Soviet Yakut statesman, writer and translator, a co-founder of modern Yakut literature, but I didn’t know how to do that. He is really a big man of history of the Republic of Sakha. Many Yakutian scientists wrote many serious works about this personage… and unconsciously I considered the task of writing about him to be impossible.

And you know what happened? One morning I was heading to my work place. It was in the early winter. I was passing Ordzhanikidze Square, when I saw a man cleaning the stature of Platon Oyunsky from snow.

It was so fascinating to see how the man was doing his job that I took a picture of his brushing work, uploaded the photo to my TwitPic account and soon got series of replies from a Yakutsk-based guy in the form of short information of who Mr. Oyunsky was.

I said, “Wow!” That guy, named Petr Petrov, was pretty serious and tried to overflow my stream stressing the importance of the historic hero. I wrote to him, “Do you have more text in English?” He, “Yes, I’ve just finished one.”

Below, please, find Petr’s text. It appeared to be pretty short, however, he wrote it very sincerely.

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Saina, Yakutsk-based Siberian ethno singer, will give her first big solo concert in Moscow on Dec. 18th, 2010. The event will be hosted in the “DOM” concert hall. More show info, think, might be got directly from her through her facebook profile Saina Singer. By the way, she is a fan of the eYakutia – English Yakutia fb page as well.

Who is Saina?

As I said in my previous post Saina, the singer of Yakutia’s Northern nations, Saina is pretty much able to present herself. Listen to her introduction (click on the title to play the audio):

Saina’s audio self presentation

Listen also to her amazing songs (full versions). Read the rest of this entry…

Think you will like Evgenia Arbugaeva‘s photographs of the Even girls living in the settlement of Topolinoe, Yakutia’s Tomponsky region, Siberia/Russia. All of them are very impressive and beautiful.

In pictures you can see the girls of the Baishevs, who are well known in Yakutia (Siberia, Russia) for their attempts to keep the Even culture safe, untouched and authentic. They are reindeer herders and they keep their own deer in the depth of the Verkhoyansky mountain area.

Evgenia is a young photographer. She is a big fan of the nomadic people. A few years ago she published a book with her photographs of Siberian nomads. Yup, it is dedicated to the Even people. Currently Evgenia is taking photography courses in New York.

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I am really, really a big fan of Sakha Theater. I love everything they did, do and will do. Recently I got a fantastic CD solely dedicated to the Sakha Theater set design. That’s a presentation disc, that gives profound information about the theater, its decor history, artists and their works. Saying a big thank to ST for providing me with the disc.

In this post I am presenting Vladimir D. Ivanov, an art director of the Sakha Theater, who worked almost thirty years ago. Further, please, find his profile and images of his works. Read the rest of this entry…

The last week in Yakutsk was remarkable for Days of Olenek (located in North-Eastern Yakutia, Siberia; 3 days by car). Here you can see the set of photographs taken on Orzhanikidze Square, that was occupied by representatves of the Even people dressed in national costumes. They danced and sang folk songs. Besides, there were outdoor sales organized. One could buy unty (reindeer skin boots) at reasonable prices like 10,000-15,000 rubles.

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Found out that Stepanida Borisova and Sakha Theatre gave performance in Paris on Sept. 24th, 2010. A few friends’ status updates informed about that event. It was a small event arranged by Yakutsk University known currently as North-Eastern Federal University.

Emilie Maj noted that Stepanida Borisova’s concert was beautiful. A very uncommon version of Olonkho (Yakut heroic epos), she said.

Another news breaker was Bernard Grua, who kindly allowed to publish his photographs on the eYakutia blog. By the way, here is what he writes:

“Never travel without your camera… I was in Paris for a couple of days. During my last evening in this city, I was told there was a performance of actors from Sakha National Theater. Fortunately, I had a memory card in my wallet. I put it in Vera’s small camera. Sometimes in photos emotions are bigger than quality. That’s why I like these pics.”

Futher, please, see more photographs. Read the rest of this entry…