Shades of Russia: Street Photography Portraits

Oleg and Alexei, 25-year-old twins, were walking to a music festival where they were invited to dance. The graphic designers said they grew up in a village outside of Nizhny Novgorod, but moved to the city where they now live.



They said they were inspired by films, including Step Up, and gave it a try. Now dance has become a serious hobby.



The two also practice fire shows and dream of their own performance combining dance and fire.





The photographer Todd Prince has an ongoing street portrait project that can be found on Instagram via @shadesofrussia.

This Russian schoolgirl was on her way home after classes. She lives in a village of about 300 people in northern Russia. There is a pail with water in front of the school to clean their rubber boots.



This young girl said she wanted to become a hair dresser.

She lives in a village in the Arkhangelsk region consisting of four homes that are several kilometers from the nearest town. She lives in a home that is a former school where her deceased husband studied as a boy. She worked for about 30 years as a nurse and retired to take care of her sick mother.



Her neighbor said that she puts on skis in the winter to get to the store in the next village.



One of seven children, her brothers and sisters come to visit and use the banya. Her sons also regularly visit with her grandchildren.

"When I was 19, I picked strawberries in Finland during the summer. We worked from 7 a.m. till 7 p.m.. If you didn't work well, then 14 hours. My back would hurt and I would get sunburns, but it was a lot of fun. There were about 50 of us. It was, so to say, a pleasant load," said Daria, a 21-year-old student.



She was sitting by herself, covered in sunlight, next to the Solovetsky Monastery as she listened to Mozart on her phone.



Daria came from Petrozavodsk, where she studies, to relax a few days on Solovky. She is studying international relations because she wants to travel and learn languages.

"Clothing should match," said Muscovite Olga in perfect English to describe her style.

"Discover yourself through history," is the motto of Vsevolod, the backpacker on a foot scooter.



He said he has traveled quite a bit outside Russia and is currently visiting Russian cities to learn about local history. He said he took the scooter on this trip to Nizhny from Moscow.



He is interested in visiting North Korea and Latin America.

He was sitting in a courtyard in the center of Moscow playing a balalaika.



He said he worked in a small company that makes the instruments. The production is based in Ulyanovsk on the Volga.

She would have fit in perfectly at a rockabilly concert with her red and white polka-dot skirt, a blue bandana in her hair and black Converse sneakers. Instead, she was reading Machiavelli's "The Prince" while making espresso from the back of a coffee car in one of the busiest spots near Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg.



Sasha, 21, said she is already divorced and is now in her fourth city, having grown up in Murmansk and lived in Krasnodar and Moscow.



She is hoping to find herself.

Igor was getting around by himself at Gorky Park in Moscow. It is such a rare thing to see people in wheelchairs on Moscow streets — especially alone.



Igor, 42, said he was checking Gorky's accessibility for disabled people. Paralyzed from a car accident 20 years ago, Igor said things have gotten better in Moscow for disabled people — such as the appearance of taxis with lifts.



Igor, who drove to the park in his car, has been working for the past 16 years making wheelchairs for active people like himself. He is now the deputy CEO. Both the CEO and founder are disabled.



Igor was proud to have attended the Sochi Para-Olympics to cheer on friends.

Shuana's father passed away when she was just a few months old, so her older sister had to step in and help her mother raise her. Both her mother & sister were always there for her, she said, adding that growing up with one parent 'strongly impacts' a child.



Shuana, living in Dagestan, works part-time with children as an animator while finishing two university degrees. She wants to travel for personal and professional development. However, the 20-year-old feels she can't leave her mom and sister, who have done so much for her — describing her predicament as being in an open cage of which she can't fly out.

Sergei, an Ulan-Ude local, is an IT specialist for the Russian Post. He said his physical appearance began to change three years ago after a stroll with his older sister along 'Arbat Street' in Ulan-Ude.



"She told me she wanted a tattoo and I said I wanted one as well. I simply wanted a change in my life."



He then got one … then a second, a third and so one. He has about 30 percent of his body covered in tattoos, but doesn't plan to stop.



"I want to cover my whole body," he said.



One of his favorite tattoos is a portrait of the singer Marilyn Manson, visible on his arm. Sergei said he loves his job and his colleagues, and that one of his dreams is to take a long road trip by hitchhiking.

Ashot, 34, said he took up skateboarding for the first time in the late 1980s, when it was barely known in USSR. He chose to leave a prestigious Moscow university in his final year to spend more time on his "true passion," turning his back on what could have been a lucrative career at an oil and gas company.



He says he doesn't regret it.