Outcasts — Project Press Kit | Oleg Klimov

Life Inside Russia’s Closed Institutions

For many years, photographer Oleg Klimov worked inside Russia’s psychoneurological institutions (PNIs) and psychiatric hospitals. Over time, he became convinced that the environment and everyday routines of these closed facilities shape the lives of residents no less than their innate conditions.

Many people living in PNIs have rarely, if ever, seen themselves in photographs. “Because someone has decided they are so ugly or so ‘mad’ that they are not even allowed to look at themselves,” Klimov says. “When I showed them their portraits, the reaction was always the same: recognition and joy. We all become unwell when we lose personal identification.”

He insists that despite the fact that among us there are “the ‘mad’ and the gifted, the beautiful and the unattractive, the mentally ill and the perfectly healthy,” we must learn to understand one another and live together.

• Project: Outcasts — Life Inside Russia’s Closed Institutions
• Years: 1992 - 2015. Published 2025, December
• Locations: Russia: Tatarstan, Siberia, Samara region, The Far East
• Access: psychoneurological institutions (PNIs), psychiatric hospitals
• Format: long-term documentary project / photobook (2025)
• Availability: editorial assignments, licensing, exhibitions, prints
• UDC 77.03
  BBK 56.14
  K49
  ISBN 978-5-6047801-4-5
• Contact: Press Kit Bio | Assignments

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

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