Rare Vintage Photos Of Dwellers Of The Russian North Over A Century Ago

The author of this unique photo collection is a Russian photo artist Nikolay A. Shabunin (1866-1907) who dedicated all his life to the ethnography of his native region – the Mezen country and its outskirts.

h/t: englishrussia

Nikolay was obsessed by the Russian north, he saw how age-old traditions receded into the past and he wanted to capture the life of those people who could be called “the children of nature” – their mode of life didn’t change for centuries.

The author brought 54 items to the Ethnographical museum of St. Petersburg – women’s clothes and accessories, 33 church belongings and 129 unique photographs. Unfortunately most of them haven’t been preserved until the present day, during his last winter trip Shabunin caught a severe flue. But some are still kept at the Museum, and you can see them now.