Misha Friedman

In the fall of 2017, the internationally acclaimed underground theatre troupe Belarus Free Theatre took New York by storm for a production of their harrowing anti-torture, anti-Putin play Burning Doors. Joined by Maria Alyokhina, a member of Russian punk group Pussy Riot, the play met with enthusiastic acclaim from critics. In Svetlana and Nadezhda, award-winning documentary photographer Misha Friedman and New Yorker reporter Masha Gessen take us backstage, giving us an intimate look at this fiercely creative drama troupe that cannot officially perform in its homeland.

For his new collection of photographs, Lyudmila and Natasha, award-winning photographer Misha Friedman trains his lens on a gay couple living on Saint Petersburg, offering a series of intimate snapshots of their relationship as it unfolds over the course of a year. Faced with a hostile political climate, financial difficulties and often unstable living arrangements, the subjects of this stunning book reveal the possibilities for love in the most uncertain of times. This book powerfully evokes both a vital place and the people who call it home.