![Yekaterinburg by Italian photographer Roberto Conte](https://ural-n.ru/uploads/topics/preview/00/00/28/45/eff92b4f53.jpg)
Люди
Yekaterinburg by Italian photographer Roberto Conte
![Residential building by Vladimir Permjakov (1983) © Roberto Conte](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/ea409b.jpg)
I am 36, born in Monza, near Milan, where I still live (after living for a while in Berlin and Rome). Actually I did not study photography in schools, I took a degree in Communication Psychology in Milan and I attended a master in cultural heritage management in Rome, but it was a lot of time ago!
![Roberto Conte © Mikhail Skaz](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/ea3659.jpg)
First of all, I have always been extremely curious and eager to learn and see as much as possible. That said, around 10 years ago, driven by this need of exploration, I started to climb the fences of abandoned industries around Milan to make pictures with a normal compact camera.
![Soviet
residential block © Roberto Conte](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/6f612c.jpg)
That was the trigger, quite soon I found very interesting to frame buildings in a personal way and, let's say, playing with their lines, so I beside my search for abandoned places I increasingly focused my research on architecture in general.
![Botanicheskaya metro station by S.U. Ziganshin and V.N. Veselovsky
(2011) © Roberto Conte](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/b8abc6.jpg)
I use a full frame reflex mainly with a 16-35mm wide angle lens and a 24mm tilt-shift lens.
![](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/527228.jpg)
At first, I was definitely attracted by the extremely rich constructivist architecture heritage you have in Yekaterinburg, but looking around for information before arriving to the city I found other interesting things to see and shoot.
![General Post Office, by Konstantin Solomonov and Veniamin Sokolov
(1929-1934) © Roberto Conte](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/fc65d1.jpg)
Difficult to pick one single feature, but I appreciated the diversity of things to see in the city, from the already mentioned constructivist buildings to some other Soviet modernist landmarks, for example the the circus or the Prometheus mosaic in the Sport Palace Ural.
![](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/588080.jpg)
The Sport Complex Dinamo is absolutely great and definitely well preserved after the renovation. For me it's even more interesting because it's one of the constructivist buildings with more similarities with some Italian rationalist architectures made in the same time in Italy, a kind of esthetical déjà-vu ("already seen", as the French say) even if built at thousands of kilometers distant from my country.
![](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/f0091c.jpg)
![Dinamo Sports Center, by Veniamin Sokolov (1931-1934) © Roberto Conte](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/94956a.jpg)
![Добрый день Екатеринбург! A view from the top of the most beautiful water tower I have ever seen © Roberto Conte](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/05/9975a9.jpg)
![As the future looked like in the first Soviet times: the wonderful White Tower (1929-1931) © Roberto Conte](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/1a3df6.jpg)
Well, this is probably the hardest question because in the 4/5 days I spent there I had no real problem or annoying situation at all. Given that I realized that there are already several things moving on in the city for the 2018 FIFA World Cup my only cheap suggestion would be to let Yekaterinburg easier to be visited by people not speaking Russian.
![](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/e85840.jpg)
Kind, polite, open-minded and with a great sense of hospitality, at list according to the people I personally met.
![Constructivist architecture in Ekaterinburg: the Iset Hotel, that used to be a dormitory for young officers of NKVD (later known as KGB), built between 1929 and 1936 © Roberto Conte](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/134767.jpg)
![She's Lost Control (Joy Division) © Roberto Conte](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/05/f335c7.jpg)
I arrived to the city by plane via Moscow and about the airport I can just say that it was very efficient. To go away I took a train, in the station I had to queue for almost one hour to get a ticket and I was also confused about where to go once inside, but it was also my very first experience with Russian trains!
![](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/8123a4.jpg)
I just spent some days in Saint Petersburg in 2014, a city that I deeply loved but I also had the impression that it was something like Venice in Italy, an Italian city of course but not really representative of the country.
Also following my photographic interests I decided to organize a longer trip around Russia, starting from Yekaterinburg and crossing Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, Ufa, Samara, Togliatti (where I organized an exhibition focused on brutalist architecture at the Отдел современного искусства), Volgograd, Moscow and a quick visit again to Saint Petersburg. I had the impression of visiting several "different Russia", given that each city has a really peculiar history.
![](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/94c131.jpg)
I travelled completely alone for one month, also walking around in the suburbs of the cities, and I never felt unsafe, quite the opposite! Especially before arriving to Moscow and Peter, once the people realized that I was coming from Italy they always made great and warm smiles, amazing! Sometimes they were just totally surprised at the beginning, especially in the less touristic cities.
![](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/3ca63b.jpg)
![Unfinished TV
tower. The construction started in 1983 and stopped after the collapse of the Soviet Union, at the height of
220m (the original project aimed to reach 361m). The tower is known as the tallest abandoned structure in the
world. © Roberto Conte](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/6cdf67.jpg)
I generally think that it's difficult to label people just according to their nationality. That said, Italians are usually quite peculiar and different even from neighbours like French or Swiss, nevertheless we have many things in common with Russian that made me feel totally at ease during my stay.
For example I totally disagree with the stereotype of the "cold Russian" (that is quite widespread among Russian themselves): of course in August it was easier than in deep Winter, but I have seen a country full of genuine people having fun, laughing and sometimes even speaking loud, exactly as we do in Italy!
![](http://ural-n.ru/uploads/images/00/00/04/2016/11/04/33d38b.jpg)