Artist Blog

Every week an artist whose single image was published by Der Greif is given a platform in which to blog about contemporary photography.

mg class="alignnone size-full wp-image-15861" alt="ludmilla-alexeyeva-russian-dissident-image-2-726x912" src="http://dergreif-online.de/www/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ludmilla-alexeyeva-russian-dissident-image-2-726x912.jpg" width="726" height="912" /> Last February I was sent by Greenpeace Magazine to Moscow to meet and photograph Lyudmila Alexeyeva. We went to her house on the famous Arbat road and there she was, a 86 year old tiny person wrapped in a blanket because the russian winter was again merciless. We decided to do the interview first and I thought I would have to wait for maybe one or two hours until I could start photographing, but (luckily) this was wrong thinking: she was telling us the whole story of her life, from the October Revolution to Stalin and the cold war period, her immigration to the US and why she left her own children there to go back to Russia in order to fight for the the human rights for her russian compatriots. I have met many amazing encouraging people before but Ms. Alexeyeva was definitely one of the most impressive personalities I ever came across. Even today she stands up and demands freedom of expression rallying together with other very brave people on the streets against the establishment. The greatest thing about her is that all the persecution, punishment, imprissionment and so on could not stop her fine humor and optimisim. I have chosen her picture to close this post because I think Lyudmila Alexeyeva's is a person we all can look up to. Thank you all for your attention and all the best to all of you, Florian Jaenicke