Every season, Rob Hornstra selects an image from his archive and makes it available as an exclusive handmade C-print (36 x 42 cm / 14.2 x 16.5 in). The number of buyers determines the print run, up to a maximum of 25. Once the season is over or print sold out, the image is no longer reprinted. This offer runs until 30 September 2021. Prints will be shipped in October 2021.

Former pilot Sergey Ivanovich - ninety-one years old - is practically suffocating under the weight of the many decorations on his jacket. He is standing in his living room in the heavily nuclear contaminated village of Argayash in Russia. As part of my graduation project at the art academy in Utrecht, I travelled in 2003 with medium and large format camera through the Chelyabinsk region in Russia. This region is heavily polluted as a result of a nuclear accident that took place in 1957 in the Mayak Production Facility.

Older inhabitants such as Ivanovich are often cited by the government to show that pollution is not that bad as described by NGOs.

According to the government, if the living conditions are as bad as NGOs and independent media say, how can you reach the age of ninety-one? Statistics, however, show the opposite to be true. Inhabitants living in this contaminated area still suffer cancer rates and birth effects multiple times higher than the national average. More plausible than the government’s view is that Ivanovich has an exceptionally strong physique. And a necessary dose of luck.

Title: Sergej Ivanovich, Argayash, Russia, 2003
From the series: Communism & Cowgirls
Original: Large format 4 x 5” negative film
Print technique: Analogue handmade C-print
Paper size: 36 x 42 cm (14.2 x 16.5 in) / Image 30 x 36 cm

In addition to the purchase of the Summer Print 2021, you can choose to have the same work immediately framed. Please click here for more information.