Vaste Programme

THE LONG WAY OF IVAN PUTNIK, TRUCK DRIVER

Shaped as a visual diary, The Long Way Home of Ivan Putnik, Truck Driver tells the story of a Russian truck driver and his long journey to go back home to his family. Driving across all of Siberia from east to west, through some of its most isolated lands, Ivan Puntik shot hundreds of pictures, writing down notes and comments alongside his photographs. Some of which are presented here.

In Siberia, north the Arctic Circle, Google Street View is almost completely non-existent. On Google Maps, the closest thing to it are spherical photographs, taken by common users, uploaded to the server and geolocated. A significant difference, on which we decided to focus on. Putnik is indeed a fictional character, and all the images in the project are actually screengrabs we took from these 360° photos shot by Russian people. We built a story around them, merging the practices of adoption and resignification of images with the vero-fiction.

The tool of the fictitious story served as a glue to the photographic material. It also brought out, against the background of the narrative, further noteworthy issues. Although the work was born from the pure pleasure to keep on wondering before the images, and although it was born without any intention of protest, some relevant issues have emerged. Issues which could be defined as environmental and political. Gas pipelines, ports, mines, uncontrolled exploitation of resources and movement of goods and materials. All of this affects us, in such a flagrant way that sometimes you just have to click randomly on google maps to find it in front of you.

Project presented in Giovane Fotografia Italiana #08 | RECONSTRUCTION