Gleb Simonov is a poet and photographer, born in Russia in 1986, and currently based in New York. His literary work has been long-listed at the international Debut Prize (2010, 2012) and appeared in many Russian poetry magazines, such as Воздух, Лиterraтура, Polutona and others. In photography, Gleb works primarily with non-urban landscapes, most notably on the far north. His work has been featured among the editor’s picks of the Independent Photographer Award (2018, 2019), the PhotogrVphy Grant (2017), published in several online photography magazines.
Additionally, Gleb is the founder and curator of the Knizhnica archive, an online library of late Soviet samizdat books.
This, Promised
My work is that of a lyricist. I shoot site-specific series that approach places as discovered entities – beings, rather than constructs, capable of possessing their own agency in the world. The methodology of it is rather impersonal and restrained, but it strives for the sentimentality of its outcomes by suggesting that the sense of clarity photography sometimes provides comes not from photography, but the world itself. In equal measure, it is a way of pointing and a way of worship.
“This, Promised” was shot in the Norwegian arctic. It focuses on places along the edges of structured land — roads, farms, national borders, the local fishing and mining industry, archeological sites and natural preserves — and covers the municipalities of Sør-Varanger, Vadsø, Vardø, Nesseby and Båtsfjord.
To view more of Gleb Simonov’s work please visit his website.