The demolition of Pruitt–Igoe, St. Louis, USA, 1972.

Once presented as a modernist vision of the future, the 33-building housing complex became one of the most famous symbols of the collapse of post-war urban planning in America. Its televised implosion later came to represent not only the failure of architecture, but the failure of the social systems built around it.

 

Illegal amber mining in Rivne region, Ukraine, 2017.

What began as a post-Soviet resource rush gradually turned entire forests into cratered landscapes, where extraction replaced infrastructure and children often became part of the labor itself. In the absence of stable work, amber turned into a parallel economy — one built on mud, pumps, collapsed soil, and temporary wealth.

 

Alchevsk, Ukraine, 2009.

The sign reads “Alchevskspetsodezhda” — a workwear company operating in the industrial city of Alchevsk. My parents met while working at a workwear manufacture. Years later, I started up working in the clothing industry as well.

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