October 14 - Irkutsk

A few weeks ago we received an e-mail letter from Karim Khamzin, who has been viewing The Russian Chronicles from Toronto, Canada. Karim asked if we could visit and photograph his family,from whom he has been separated for five years.

This afternoon Lisa finally made contact with Karim's wife Irina and tomorrow we will visit with her and their two boys.


October 15 - Irkutsk

Today was definitely the high point of the trip for me.

When we arrived at Karim's apartment, the whole family was there to greet us.

Just as we sat down to the fabulous lunch they laid out for us the phone rang. It was Karim calling from Canada. Lisa and I both had a chance to speak with him about our trip and the site -- which we still have yet to see -- and he thanked us for visiting his family. It was a memorable little moment.


After lunch I made portraits of everyone and asked each of them to write a little note to Karim that we could publish with the photographs.

From the left are his sister Gulnara, his father Mukhamed and mother-in-law Zinaida. In the top row are his sons Damir and Artyum and his wife Irina. Lisa made some recordings of Artyum and Damir, who required some coaxing just to get a couple of words out of him.

That we were able to meet the family of one of our readers was both exciting and rewarding. And for the first time I felt like we were drawing on the fuller potential of this medium.

Tomorrow we pack and get ready to move on to Novosibirsk.



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