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Escape (book+print)

by Danila Tkachenko

Photographs: Danila Tkachenko

Text: Danila Tkachenko, with quotes from the the Escapers

Publisher: Peperoni Books

120 pages

Pictures: 44 colour images

Year: 2014

ISBN: 978-3-941825-63-5

Comments: 29,5 x 23,5 cm, Hardcover, Clothbound with tipped-in image, English. Signed print no. 4/18.

“Man does not need society at all, it’s the society that needs man. Society is a forced measure of protection and survival. Unlike a gregarious animal, man must live alone - in nature among animals, plants and in contact with them.” - Andrey Tarkovsky

Strong words that the young Russian photographer Danila Tkachenko uses to start his book "Escape". As indeed most people all over the world live in community with others and arrange themselves in work and family life with the demands of society. But it is no secret, that many suffer under the constraints, break or drop out.

No matter how overused the term of the dropout is, Danila Tkachenko in this series portrayed the most radical of their kind and calls them "Escapers". Men who have turned their backs on society to live alone as hermits in the wilderness of Russian and Ukrainian forests. Confronted with this disturbing work the questions regarding our own personal freedom and the consequences arise anew.

With good reason "Escape" won a first prize at the "World Press Photo Contest 2014".

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