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Couleurs de Russie

This article was originally published on Ria Novosti

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Friday, February 11 opened in Moscow exhibition "Best of Russia ", held at the Expo Centre of Contemporary Art Vinzavod . The exhibition, sponsored by the Department of Culture, is held every year since 2008 and is the publication of the best photos of the year to illustrate the best of Russia.

The principle is very simple, all Russian citizens can participate. The aim is to discover among photographers, who are able to give a true image of Russia. Far from the stereotypes, the participants expose the life, beauty, diversity and the contrasts which the country abounds. The photos are classified according to several themes: nature, architecture, people, events and style.

365 photos are selected in each category, being the selection of winners of the year. Exhibitions 2009 and 2008 were a great success. That in 2010 attracted 300,000 visitors. Each year, the number of participants is increasing and thousands of photos are sorted. This year, 569 cities participated, 25,239 photographs were submitted and 365 selected. The exhibition will be held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm, Novosibirsk and also Paris.

Also in the field of photography, there is another event "Colours of Russia" , which has existed since 2007. Organized by Michael Hockney and William Zlatanov, two Canadian photographers who travel the world. Colours of Russia comprises nearly 15,000 photographs from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. It was acknowledged by the Itar-Tass as an important project and representative of modern Russia. It should be noted that Colours of Russia is the Russian part of a more comprehensive , also of very high quality.

The common goal of both projects you'll understand it is to give an image of Russia out of prejudice but also real and current. These projects are entirely their up to try to change the image of Russia abroad which is quite catastrophic. Of course, we know, the current global media is rarely favorable to Russia and France is a good illustration.

In a recent interview , Emmanuel Quidet, CEO of Ernst & Young Russia and founding president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Russia, recalled that "the press is very negative Russia and always has been, particularly the French press. " Therefore, the illustration Russia in pictures seems a relatively good way to discover this country is still relatively unknown.

I remember when I first became interested in Russia, there are this many years, I desperately searched for a site with real photos on Russia. I watched a lot of images that were available online and I found mostly publicity photos of the towns of the Golden Ring cities or both are unavoidable as Moscow and St. Petersburg. But I have not found photos of Barnaul, Vladivostok, Petrozavodsk or Krasnodar. No pictures of faculty, students, villages or bars, restaurants, beaches and especially the Russian people ...

Since then, a number of Russian blogs have grown, it is possible to see Russia in pictures, as it is, but online access is still difficult for foreigners and for potential tourists, often because of language barriers.

Since I write about Russia, I often thought to illustrate my point with pictures. We must admit that it is not easy. Russia is a vast and varied country, at once so modern and so archaic, it is difficult to illustrate. How to compare the avenues of modern Moscow with reindeer herders in the Far East? How to compare the polar aspect of the far north with the eastern Arctic Caucasus? What show Russia as Russia? How to choose in the mosaic of peoples and traditions? It is the merit of these two exhibitions: collecting images of diversity for the sake of Russian visitors.

For a vast majority of people, Russia is a cold, wintry and gray, a country without lights. A Russian friend described to me recently that it was Russia, illustrating it by the swirling snow created by wind on the snowy banks of the suburban station where she took her électrichka (commuter train-ed) early every morning to go to work .

A painting in a realistic sense but it is not really true seller, especially from a tourism perspective. The absence of light in many regions of the north or east of the country is a fact but this climate is not the case everywhere, for example along the Black Sea or the Caucasus.

To show what it's like living "in the south, "the blogger Arthur French, for example, gives a rather unexpected Russia. Since 2006, he posts photos of of the city where he lives, Novorossiysk, which is, as he reminds us, the 77th largest city. He thus shows that life in Russia is not only possible but also enjoyable, far from big cities where the majority are still concentrated foreigners. Clearly seen on his pictures: Russia's him is hot, blue and exotic palm trees competing for space with the Kit-Surfers or scooters. And yet you are not dreaming, you are in Russia, even if Russia South is far from the image that we can get.

Far stereotypes and fantasies, the pictures do not lie to us: they show us today's Russia.