Ou Menya

Bieke Depoorter
Ou Menya

Photographs: Bieke Depoorter

Text: Bieke Depoorter

Publisher: Lannoo Publishers

128 pages

Year: 2011

Comments: Softcover, 320 x 240 mm. First edition, 2011. Color photographs. Text in English Flemish and French. In very good condition.

For this project, Bieke Depoorter spent three periods of one month following the route of the TransSiberian Express stopping at the forgotten villages along the way. Once she reached a village, she would ask residents if she could stay with them, moving from living room to living room each night.

“For three periods of one month, I have let the Trans-Siberian train guide me alongside forgotten villages, from living room to living room. Some Russian words, scribbled on a little piece of paper, allowed me to be welcomed and absorbed in the warm chaos of a family. Accidental encounters led me to the places where I could sleep. The living room, the epicenter of their life, establishes an intimate contact between the Russian inhabitants. For a brief moment, I was part of this. Their couch became my bed for one night.”

Ou Menya is the result of this journey, for which she received the HP Magnum Expression Award.