The Komi diary

Through a strange twist of fate, Filippo Zambon has made the remote city of Syktyvkar in northern Russia his second home. It is the capital of the Komi Republic and home to the Komi people, a Finno-Ugric ethnic group who originally inhabited land which was colonised by the Russians centuries ago. During tsarist times it was a place of political exile, and during World War II the Red Army forced hundreds of German prisoners to the region. Many of their descendants are still living there. The Soviets used it as a gulag, and many of these prisoners survived and remained as well. Zambon explores the complexity and variations of this isolated community in this photo series.