Chekhov’s Sakhalin

Sakhalin lies out in the middle of the sea. For a long time it has seemed to us a prison that was not quite secure enough—and life on it not quite a severe enough punishment for the crimes committed. And so we improved it, in the manner of reasonable people: we made a hard-labour island, chained men to wheelbarrows of coal, flogged them with rods, and took away even the right to dream of freedom.

What humanitarian shifts has civilisation managed during its technocratic age—up to our own day? Not many. The indigenous peoples have been driven to extinction or absorption; their languages and their memory have thinned out. The hard-labour island has turned into a shift-work island for transcontinental corporations. And where there were convicts and penal servitude, there are now shift and guest workers—pulling fish from the sea and drawing gas and oil from the ground.

Call to action
View and purchase the Calamity Islands photobook.

Independent documentary photography rarely survives in today’s media environment. Publishing books is not a commercial strategy — it is a necessity.