Courtney Cutchen Photography

MK4 Volkswagen R32 by Eric Dowd on Flickr.

BBS RS on Flickr.

“There is nothing in life that can give me as much energy as northern Russia, with its inhospitable climate and deep forests,” says Moscow-based Mikhail Barynin (@namaste_mb), a documentary filmmaker who first visited and fell in love with the north of Russia when he was 13 years old. “Since that moment, my world has been changed,” he reflects. “I felt how gorgeous nature was there, and its power.” Mikhail looks for film subjects in some of Russia’s most far-flung regions, where people live far from civilization. “It takes me a lot of time to find these people,” he says, “to understand and feel their northern lifestyle. They are heroes in my documentaries, and at the same time, they became my personal heroes. They are happy with a lack of roads, because they feel a freedom in nature’s movements, and its calm harmony.”

MK4 Volkswagen R32 by Eric Dowd on Flickr.