The small town of Elatma, on the river Oka, some 300 kilometers east of Moscow, is home to six institutions for the mentally disabled. The clinics date back to World War II, when they were established as orphanages for children who had lost their parents during the war. Over time, the institutions came instead to shelter children with mental disabilities, whose parents had abandoned them at birth, or those taken into care from the homes of alcoholics or drug addicts. Most residents have spent all their lives in this institutionalized setting, but they do sometimes go beyond the walls, out among the other citizens of Elatma.
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Russia
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Anastasia Rudenko was born in the South-Kazakhstan region in 1982. At the age of 12, she moved to Russia with her parents. In 2009, she began taking photos inspired by experiences in her own family as a child. She began documenting families affected by domestic abuse, including members of her own family and people she met by following the police. Over the past two years, Rudenko has been exploring social issues in Russia (domestic violence, disabled children living in orphanages) and documenting life in her native Kazakhstan.
