Russia is the biggest country in the world, whose economy is growing with huge steps everyday. The biggest incomes come from gas and oil, but an important source (not because of the amount of profits, but of the socio-economic fact) are the local stores in residential zones of cities and villages. Many of them are opened 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For the average russian citizen this schedules are common, people are so used to this unnormal normality and it would be very strange if it didn't exist.
There is a huge variety of stores: from pharmacies and "larechki" (small stores with food, alcohol, cigarettes and more) to flower stores, car washes, underground casinos and more.
These small pavilions are a heritage of the post-soviet era, when people were allowed to have their own businesses. Some people got in the oil and gas business, some got their own factories, and others opened these stores. Since the fall of the soviet regime, the russians try to work better for themselves rather than for other people.
And maybe, these stores are a projection (wanted or not) of dream-government, where everything works round the clock, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, and where people do everything they can, to save a little money. This is a dehumanizing perspective, where the right to rest is abolished by the people itself. The most frightening part, is that passersby and the people who work there, do not realize about this.
The present series of photographs should serve as a document of this part of the Russian daily life. The photographs were taken between 00.00 and 06.00 AM in a popular residential neighborhood of St. Petersburg during the spring-summer of 2011.
