Student Photo Exhibition: Baba, Babushka.
Photographs by Dasha Bough ('21) and Sky Russell ('20)
A collection of images captured in different places at the same time...
Dasha Bough ('21) spent the summer of 2019 in Volgograd, Russia filming a documentary about a babushka named Galiya. Sky Russell ('20) spent the same summer with the babas (grandmas) and jijis (grandpas) of Tenryu-mura, a rapidly aging rural hamlet in central Japan. Taken together, the exhibit's images and text paint a picture of colorful lives being lived in two very different corners of the world. Although the stories are each unique and settings vastly disparate, the snapshots share the hushed beauty, unassuming poetry, and outrageous humor found in the mundane.
Co-sponsored by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and the Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University.
Click the following links to learn more about Sky's time in Japan and Dasha's time in Russia.
This one is good for high blood pressure."
I had to protect these two girls while we were down by the Volga. We were harassed by some gentlemen - just mafia boys. It's because this one was strutting around in her swimsuit. I mean they were both attractive boys, so I asked them, 'Where ya from, boys?' They were twirling, spinning, and bending over trying to get the girls on a date. I told them, 'The only girl that's going on a date with you boys, is me.' Bandits. They think I don't know how to protect my girls."
"She doesn't need anything!"
"So you don't have men looking after you yet? Babushka, do you believe this?"
"Yes. She's independent."
"But...what about when she turns 30?"
"She's in America. At Harvard."
"What, are you messing with me? Then she'll just work in America. She'll get used to it, find herself an oligarch and stay there."
"Don't be silly. We have our own Tatar oligarchs."
...
I know. I'm sorry. But she needs to learn this stuff or they'll know she's American.
...
Da...Da.
I'm trying to help her blend. Just let us do our thing. Lighten up, girl."
