Last week viewpoint-east.org introduced a new element, a virtual gallery. After Maria Magnusson’s set S:t Petersburg 1995/2010 was published, I thought to myself that it would be nice with a reply, from today’s Petersburg. I started to search and I found Ekaterina Khozatskaya, an Urban Sketcher for S:t Petersburg.
Here is her set cha-cha-changes and below you can read her own thoughts.
I was born in S:t petersburg 23 years ago and lived there for all my life. I was only 9 years in 1995, so I don’t remember much from that time. I remember my school, coffe with buns, women selling “Pribaltic”-sweaters and wool hoods in front of DLT (Leningrad trade house). Illegal, I suppose.
15 years have passed, Life differents much, but it seems that it has always been like that. People moved from kitchens and backstreets to bars and cafes. Sushi restaraunts on every corner, coffe shops, and italian restaraunts, english pubs and swiss bakeries.
Hypermarkets, and shopping centers: “Red triangle” boots replaced by hundreds of foreign companies. It’s not a problem to go abroad any more. In the 90’s it was hard to imagine that computers, internet, mobile phones would exists in almost every house. But today it is a fact!
Of course it’s not for everyone and you can still meet lots of people like on Marias photos, which are not victims of fashion, and lots of shops without food, still.
But a lot of things have changed. As you can see in my sketches.
I’ve been reading a few posts and i’m adding your blog to my rss reader , thanks !