Svetlana Kazina photographer Altai personal life. A woman who fled to the Altai Mountains showed the world the beauty of Russian nature. Gotta take the kids

She again dreamed of the mountains, as in childhood. The ones she saw in books or on TV, because they had never met in person. Snow-covered peaks, lakes lost in gorges, piercing cold, slopes blooming in spring, she felt the breath of the wind. But after waking up, everyday reality awaited her again: an apartment in a high-rise building in the center of Kemerovo, a divorce, two children who needed to be put on their feet. And she realized that she must find the mountains from her dreams ...

Home Sweet Home

Two decades have passed since the adoption of that very decision, all this time Svetlana Kazina lives in the village of Uznezya in the Altai Mountains, and she never even had the thought of regretting the move.

“My house is old – it was built in 1930. It is damp, it has a low ceiling and crooked walls, there is no heating, a toilet, a bath and even water, our heroine tells StarHit. - Returning to it, you will not be able to joyfully throw off your shoes, clothes and jump on the sofa after a shower. You can only take off your backpack, because you need to bring firewood to light the stove, then go for water so that you have something to wash off the road, then wait until the house warms up, and only after that you undress. But whatever it may be, this is my very house - ironed, caressed, which I have never had before. Alive, feeling and desirable. Shelter. Roof. Shelter. When leaving, I always tell him: "Wait for me." Returning, I slap him on the wall with my palm: “Hi, are you tired of waiting?”, And he sighs.

Electricity is often cut off in the village, sometimes for several days. Often the internet crashes. Any city dweller would go crazy with idleness in an hour. But Svetlana is used to such problems, and she doesn’t consider it a problem either. In the evenings, he lights candles or a kerosene stove, drinks tea, reads books, or simply daydreams.

Relatives and friends reacted to Svetlana's move with incomprehension. “Many were sure that I had lost my mind and signed up for some kind of sect,” Sveta laughs. But laughter with laughter, and it was here that the girl, whose only profession was a kindergarten teacher, and even then only on paper, found herself.

“The mountains immediately took me into circulation,” our heroine shares. - I immediately began to study the area, earning money by excursions to various regions of the republic. She also painted pictures and sold them to tourists. I don’t remember how Zenit ended up in my hands, but I soon began to shoot. To be honest, the knowledge of shooting techniques has not come to me so far, I do it intuitively. But I will learn, there is time, there are opportunities, there is practice.”

In the first couple of years in the mountains of Light, she rented a house with her children, and then bought her own. The one he talks about with such love. In Uznezi, the population is only 500 people, but there is a kindergarten and a school. While Svetlana was earning money, the son and daughter looked after the household, cooked borscht, went to school, talked with friends - ordinary life, everything is like everyone else. Now the children have grown up, left to study in Novosibirsk, and stayed there.

“They are both in love, but is it possible to break away from a person dear to the heart, especially in youth? Now their life is there,” says Sveta. Of course, they often visit their mother, and she comes to Novosibirsk once a month and always brings her favorite sweets from there - this is perhaps the only thing Svetlana lacks in rural life.

AT THE CALL OF BLOOD

Even Kazina has no time to be bored alone. The morning starts with fragrant coffee with spices. And it continues with work that no one will do for you: to bring water, chop firewood, cook dinner. But the most important thing is that for the sake of which she abandoned the bustle of the city - communication with nature.

“I don’t leave the house without a camera,” the woman says. – In rain and frost, in the mountains and at sea, I shoot, shoot, shoot ... Why? I want to show people the beauty of our planet, the wonders and realities of the world around us.”

Spend half the night in the cold photographing the moon and the Milky Way, meet a pack of wolves and capture them? Easily! Rarely does a day go by without a photo walk. “It’s much more convenient to do them alone,” she continues. “But if these are long and long trips, and especially climbing, then only with friends - proven and reliable.”

Svetlana never planned to make money with photography, and even now she does not have such thoughts.

“Everything I do is purely out of curiosity and interest. And people will always help to survive,” she says. But it was thanks to the stunning landscape shots that she became famous - they are published in popular magazines, the number of her subscribers in social networks is in the tens of thousands, it became possible to visit different parts of the Earth. She has already traveled in Spain and Sri Lanka, Norway and Switzerland, India and Germany. A self-taught photographer is invited to other countries not only to work, but also just to visit.

“When I find myself somewhere, as a rule, they called me there,” says Sveta. “And for work or for leisure - what difference does it make to me if both give me pleasure.”

In addition to photography, Svetlana draws pictures and makes protective dolls. There is a queue behind them. “People who like my work often come to me,” the woman says. “I always apologize for not being able to make time for everyone. A short conversation at the gate, mutual wishes of good and happiness - and we go about our business. When I lived in the city, I did not have as much communication as here. In general, my best interlocutors are mountains and forests. Anyone want to dispute this? And a few years ago it turned out that Svetlana's father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were born in a Gorno-Altai village.

“I never knew about it, because my parents divorced when I was still a preschooler, and I didn’t communicate with my dad,” says Kazina. - The truth was revealed only recently, when I established contact with him and found out that through his line I am a hereditary resident of Altai. That is, all my dreams and dreams about the mountains were the call of blood. Trust me, it exists."

A clear example of the fact that life helps people who dare to follow the call of their hearts and not betray their dreams is the life of photo artist Svetlana Kazina. It's sad that she had to be strong alone and there was no strong male shoulder nearby, but I admire this personality! Read her life story...

“Without money, without work - Svetlana Kazina took the kids and suddenly left for 600 miles from her native Kemerovo. Going nowhere. To start everything from scratch.

And today she is known as an eminent photographer: no one can take pictures of the Altai Mountains better than her. Although the main thing is that she became the mistress of her life.

No one understood the Light then. They twisted at the temple: either she got into a sect, or the roof went.

- I felt that Kemerovo was not my city. The air is heavy there. Studied, worked - didn't like anything. In addition to the mountains, I have seen them in my dreams since childhood. I grew up in an ordinary family - not before traveling. Thanks to my mother, who worked in trade, she bought for me all the encyclopedias with pictures of mountains and volcanoes. Although our relationship was not warm. When I was 6 years old, my parents divorced, it was not great with my stepfathers. I looked at my mother and understood how not to live.

And "how to" - I did not immediately understand. Sveta got married, gave birth to Maxim and Lisa. And now she transferred mountains to canvases.
- Zhenya Grishkovets - we were friends with families - helped arrange the first exhibition in the theater. Then there was a second, a third. But I was still bogged down. I went into parachuting - they didn’t understand at home. The husband was indignant: how can you leave children for the sake of jumping? Once, in a strong wind, I was carried along the ground with a dome, I was scratched. And the mother-in-law screamed in horror: “You were with your lover!”

HAVE TO TAKE THE CHILDREN!

Dreams became longer, brighter. Once I began to look on the map: what could be dreaming? Sheregesh? Khakassia? I packed a backpack, asked my mother-in-law to sit with the kids. And then friends: “Go to Altai! Here are mountains, so mountains!”

Friends agreed with a local artist, organized a car - and…

- As soon as I saw the blue mountains, I “recognized” them, burst into tears. The driver was nervous: "Do you feel bad?" And in the village where the artist lived, every day I went to sketches and cried: how to return to Kemerovo, if my home is here ?! Gotta take the kids!

What she said to her husband, how he reacted - Svetlana does not want to remember any of this. One thing was important to her: she found her place.

I didn't love my husband anymore. We've always been more like friends. They remained.

Home, home, in the mountains! Felt boots for children ... a frying pan - no, not like that ... forms for bread - it will be necessary to cook ... She walked around the house, putting everything that would be needed in the village into potato bags. And at the same time she told her husband everything that she thought about him, about Kemerovo and Altai.

- Yes, I am an infection, I took the children away from their father. But I was sure that everything would be OK. In Kemerovo, I already turned into a hysteric.

A few years later, Svetlana returned her maiden name. And she found her father, whom she had not seen since the age of six.
- All my life my mother said what a terrible father I had (he drank), and a wonderful man and a wonderful wife came to me, who saved him. We had lunch, went out into the yard - I see a tear on my father’s cheek: “Daughter, how did you suddenly decide to return home?” - “I didn’t understand, dad ...” - “Well, how did you guess that we are from Altai? I'm from neighboring Shebalino. And my father, and grandfather, and great-grandfather. I was taken away from here as a child.” Then the last puzzle fell into place. "Call of Blood" is not just a phrase after all.

APERTURE AND SPEED

How to start from scratch in a strange place - with small children, no money, no friends, no home? Svetlana can explain for a long time. The main thing is that if you believe that the decision is correct, nothing is scary.

Having chosen a village with a kindergarten and a school on the Chuisky tract, she rented a house and drove in a peg with a sign “pictures”. She made jewelry from natural materials, took tourists to the mountains.

The passion for photography came by itself - a loving mother wanted to capture on film how children grow up.

- When they told me about aperture and shutter speed, I wanted to scream - I have a girl's mind. Filmed intuitively. Learned from my mistakes. Now the camera is always with me. And I don't feel sorry for her. Colleagues are indignant - but if I spared the lenses, and the camera was in the case all the time, would I take such photos? Bird, cloud, fog, rainbow - will they wait for me?

She is constantly invited to give a master class, to make an exhibition. They found out from Norway: “We want you to take pictures of our country as Altai.”

- I would like to live without the Internet and neighbors. The test of glory is not for me. I am a sociopath. I'm tired of people. But I'm still dependent on money. And I'm growing as a photographer.

"HOUSE IN APPLES"

Finding her "apple house" in the village is not difficult - it is right next to the road that fed Svetlana and her children for many years. In summer, there is not a day without tourists.

- Once - it was a bandit time - one person came: “You are blessed - take money for the house ...” But even today I sometimes hear: “You are either very smart or a fool.”

It is difficult for many to come to terms with the fact that a beautiful woman can be smart. And even happy. Although her female share - God forbid anyone. I got hurt, I cried. She begged for children, and almost lost both during childbirth. When, after the second caesarean, the doctors tied her tubes without permission, she went into shock.

As soon as the children grew up, fate threw a new shock. At night, the bathhouse broke out - the slate flew up with a crack. The fire spread to the house, the wiring immediately burned down. Night. Winter. She still does not understand how the children got dressed in pitch darkness, and she dragged out the refrigerator, stove, full gas cylinder ...

- I love my home, comfort. But you can't get too attached to anything. It was a sign. “Go ahead, I’ll build a new one!” - I said then. And the fire went out.

Since then, almost nothing has changed in her house. The same old furniture, Russian stove. Water - in the spring: a kilometer on a bicycle with flasks. Toilet - in the yard. Once, choosing between children's shoes and a new camera, she chose shoes. Now the grown children are in the city. And to the question, a camera or a well, she answers - a camera. Puts on sportswear, mountain boots. And - to a new peak. Crawl on ice, drown in snow, walk on water. Waiting for sunrise and sunset.
- I am often perceived as an “energizer”, but I can also be blue. For everything you love in life you have to pay. I did not break limbs, stones did not fall on me. Is it worth talking about inevitable cystitis? Or do you seriously think that mountain air and clean food give a person health? Nonsense! You just have to live in joy.

She found her place and ... herself in it. One raised the children. Sings, dances, plays the komus. Her photographs are charged with positive, protective dolls help to recover, find a husband and even ... conceive a child (there is a queue for amulets, people have been waiting for their doll for years). She is happy. But it seems that one puzzle in her picture is still missing.

- When the children were with me, I made a promise to myself that they would not have stepfathers. But one day she went to Murmansk for her beloved, even diving with him into the Barents Sea ... I didn’t get along. Twice he brought me back from the station. And the third time he didn't catch up.

Today she has a beloved man. But they don't live together. “Unfortunately, I am strong,” Svetlana admits. And finishes drinking male tea from the red root.

- Everything I want comes to me. Mice started up - a cat appeared. A man began to pester - a dog wandered. Everything just comes. Except the husband. Apparently, I'm not ready for his arrival. Bye".

Svetlana is amazing! May life give her love!

And today she is known as an eminent photographer: no one can take pictures of the Altai Mountains better than her. Although the main thing is that she became the mistress of her life.

No one understood the Light then. They twisted at the temple: either she got into a sect, or the roof went.

— I felt that Kemerovo was not my city. The air is heavy there. I studied, I worked, I didn't like anything. In addition to the mountains, I have seen them in my dreams since childhood. I grew up in an ordinary family - not before traveling. Thanks to my mother, who worked in trade, she bought for me all the encyclopedias with pictures of mountains and volcanoes. Although our relationship was not warm. When I was 6 years old, my parents divorced, it was not great with my stepfathers. I looked at my mother and understood how not to live.

— Zhenya Grishkovets- we were friends with families - he helped arrange the first exhibition in the theater. Then there was a second, a third. But I was still bogged down. I went into parachuting - they didn’t understand at home. The husband was indignant: how can you leave children for the sake of jumping? Once, in a strong wind, I was carried along the ground with a dome, I was scratched. And the mother-in-law screamed in horror: “You were with your lover!”

Gotta take the kids!

Dreams became longer, brighter. Once I began to look on the map: what could be dreaming? Sheregesh? Khakassia? I packed a backpack, asked my mother-in-law to sit with the kids. And then friends: “Go to Altai! Here are mountains, so mountains!”

Friends agreed with a local artist, organized a car - and...

- As soon as I saw the blue mountains, I “recognized” them, burst into tears. The driver was nervous: "Do you feel bad?" And in the village where the artist lived, every day I went to sketches and cried: how to return to Kemerovo, if my home is here?! Gotta take the kids!

What she said to her husband, how he reacted - Svetlana does not want to remember any of this. One thing was important to her: she found her place.

I didn't love my husband anymore. We've always been more like friends. They remained.

Home, home, in the mountains! Felt boots for children ... a frying pan - no, not like that ... forms for bread - it will be necessary to cook ... She walked around the house, putting everything that would be needed in the village into potato bags. And at the same time she told her husband everything that she thought about him, about Kemerovo and Altai.

- Yes, I am an infection, I took the children away from their father. But I was sure that everything would be OK. In Kemerovo, I already turned into a hysteric.

- All my life my mother said what a terrible father I had (he drank), and a wonderful man and a wonderful wife came to me, who saved him. We had lunch, went out into the yard - I see a tear on my father’s cheek: “Daughter, how did you suddenly decide to return home?” - “I didn’t understand, dad ...” - “Well, how did you guess that we were from Altai? I'm from neighboring Shebalino. And my father, and grandfather, and great-grandfather. I was taken away from here as a child.” Then the last puzzle fell into place. "Call of Blood" is not just a phrase after all.

Aperture and shutter speed

How to start from scratch in a strange place - with small children, no money, no friends, no home? Svetlana can explain for a long time. The main thing is that if you believe that the decision is correct, nothing is scary.

Having chosen a village with a kindergarten and a school on the Chuisky tract, she rented a house and drove in a peg with a sign “pictures”. She made jewelry from natural materials, took tourists to the mountains.

The passion for photography came by itself - a loving mother wanted to capture on film how children grow up.

- When they told me about aperture and shutter speed, I wanted to scream - I have a girl's mind. Filmed intuitively. Learned from my mistakes. Now the camera is always with me. And I don't feel sorry for her. Colleagues are indignant - but if I spared the lenses, and the camera was in the case all the time, would I take such photos? Bird, cloud, fog, rainbow - will they wait for me?

She is constantly invited to give a master class, to make an exhibition. They found out from Norway: “We want you to take pictures of our country as Altai.”

- I would like to live without the Internet and neighbors. The test of glory is not for me. I am a sociopath. I'm tired of people. But I'm still dependent on money. And I'm growing as a photographer.

"House in apples"

Finding her "apple house" in the village is not difficult - it is right next to the road that fed Svetlana and her children for many years. In summer, there is not a day without tourists.

- Once - it was a bandit time - one person came: “You are blessed - take money for the house ...” But even today I sometimes hear: “You are either very smart or a fool.”

It is difficult for many to come to terms with the fact that a beautiful woman can be smart. And even happy. Although her female share - God forbid anyone. I got hurt, I cried. She begged for children, and almost lost both during childbirth. When, after the second caesarean, the doctors tied her tubes without permission, she went into shock.

As soon as the children grew up, fate threw a new shock. At night, the bathhouse broke out - the slate flew up with a crack. The fire spread to the house, the wiring immediately burned down. Night. Winter. She still does not understand how the children got dressed in pitch darkness, and she dragged out a refrigerator, a stove, a full gas cylinder ...

- I love my home, comfort. But you can't get too attached to anything. It was a sign. “Go ahead, I’ll build a new one!” I said then. And the fire went out.

- I am often perceived as an “energizer”, but I can also be blue. For everything you love in life you have to pay. I did not break limbs, stones did not fall on me. Is it worth talking about inevitable cystitis? Or do you seriously think that mountain air and clean food give a person health? Nonsense! You just have to live in joy.

She found her place and... herself in it. One raised the children. Sings, dances, plays the komus. Her photographs are charged with positive, protective dolls help to recover, find a husband and even ... conceive a child (there is a queue for amulets, people have been waiting for their doll for years). She is happy. But it seems that one puzzle in her picture is still missing.

- When the children were with me, I made a promise to myself that they would not have stepfathers. But one day she went to Murmansk for her beloved, even diving with him into the Barents Sea ... She didn’t get along. Twice he brought me back from the station. And the third time he didn't catch up.

Today she has a beloved man. But they don't live together. “Unfortunately, I am strong,” Svetlana admits. And finishes drinking male tea from the red root.

Everything that I want comes to me. Mice started up - a cat appeared. Some man began to pester - a dog wandered. Everything just comes. Except the husband. Apparently, I'm not ready for his arrival. Bye.

″If you knew how many friends I buried who led a healthy lifestyle…″
"Don't be fooled by fashion calls!"

Svetlana Kazina (Vetka) is a popular Russian traveler and artist. She lives in the Altai Mountains and often posts stunning wildlife shots on her website.

She recently wrote a Facebook post that has already gained 16,000 likes and 13,500 shares. It's about a healthy lifestyle... but not in the way you think!

Here is the entire post by Svetlana Kazina (spelling and punctuation of the original):
People‼ My dear little people! I've wanted to write this post for a long time. But before you would not have believed me, but now is the time! Yes, I've been bombarded with questions on this subject.

LISTEN HERE CAREFULLY!

1. Diseases do not come from the fact that the environment is bad, the water is dirty, the food is plastic and we do not move much. By no means! This is the first.

Diseases do not come because you are in the city or in the countryside. Believe me, the human body is an ideal machine for adapting to any conditions and food. Here we villagers cannot eat your urban powder food, drink your water and smell your air. But not because it's all dirty. But because it's different. Unaccustomed to our body.

And you, in our mountains, drizzle, sorry, from our spring and river water, from cow's milk, lamb and the rest, and from our height and pressure your heads crack like watermelons. But (!) not there and not there - not bad! We just have a different environment. You are adapted here, and we are there. In the mountains, people get sick just as much as in the city, calm down))) And in the cities there are also long-livers.

2. Second: If a person lives in harmony with nature, prays, meditates, yogis, eats sprouted grains of wheat, wears a hairstyle like Jesus or the goddess Kali and donates to orphanages, this does not mean that he will live 100 years and die healthy! By no means!

What makes you think that if you live on the seashore in the lotus position, you will not get sick? If you knew how many friends I buried who led an exceptionally healthy lifestyle!

EXCEPTIONALLY HEALTHY!!! Among them are athletes, doctors, healers and people who work around the clock on their spiritual growth. Non-smokers, non-drinkers, non-mothers, they were dying of cancer.

You will never understand why sickness comes. Stop bothering with the concepts of “no”, “diet” and “sin”. It won't lengthen your life. For the disease is not in the body, the disease is in the head!

So just LIVE IN PLEASURE!

Do everything for pleasure.

- Learn to finally eat what you like, and not what is useful. Just eat it, don't overeat it.

- Can't quit smoking? Don't quit! But smoke not with remorse, but with pleasure. You don't have to quit smoking at all. You have to WANT not to smoke. A ban always works the other way around.

- Throw the unloved job to the hell out of the hair dryer or learn to enjoy it, whatever it is.

— Do not be fooled by the appeals of fashion, time, the Internet, etc... Do not put on alien and false images of a highly spiritual person.

It is impossible to look sadly at social media accounts. Whatever Marivanna, then - "Call of the Universe" or "Flying Rainbow"! Whatever Palpalych, then "Svyatogor smashing" or "Eye of justice." Whatever the wall, then a series of pictures with a third eye, yin-yangs and mandalas. Whatever the account, then the list of aphorisms of lamas, soothsayers, elders, suddenly wiser actors and wise men who never existed.

You look and think: how did I finally get here, to such highly spiritual personalities? By God, sometimes you want to puke from such “highly spiritual” accounts, behind which ordinary people actually sit, like everyone else, with acne, caries, heartburn, neighbors, relatives, unhappy love, etc... Be the way you are! Be yourself!)))

- Do what you wanted and dreamed of doing since childhood. Learn guitar, piano, vocals, skiing, watercolor, mosaic, clay, etc. There are no people who do not have creative inclinations, I am telling you this as an artist. Don't dream of a motorcycle, buy it! Do not accumulate dreams, they go out and rot in the back streets of the brain!

Have you always dreamed of going to the mountains, but are you taking a steam bath in the office? Go to the mountains! You live in the mountains, but you want to take a steam bath in the office? Go to the city!))) EVERYTHING IS IN YOUR HANDS!

- Do you like privacy? Indulge in pleasure. Are you afraid of loneliness? Go to people

Find joy and pleasure in everything. Even where, it would seem, this cannot be.

- And most importantly: people, the lifestyle should not be healthy, but HAPPY!

And in general, right now I will reveal to you the most important secret of life and the very meaning of life: there is no meaning to life!)))

There is simply Life. Morning, afternoon, evening, night and morning again. There is a planet, people, flora and fauna. Weekdays and holidays. Happiness and trouble.

And there is Death. And she comes at any time, at any age. So do you have time to live in other people's dreams, imposed ideas and social norms?

Live in pleasure and do not look for the causes of illness and death among relatives and artists. This is not for us to understand. But life is given. And it must be lived in Joy. Don't let others be happy. And even helping

Well, if you like to search for the meaning of life so much, then consider that this is what it is - to live in joy.

Pysy: all this does not mean at all that being in search and being a seeker is bad. No. If this is a joy for you, then good luck))) But my friends, relatives and strangers, dying, confessed to me: “All my life I have been looking for something, doing something, running somewhere, and most importantly was under my nose. Favorite people. And everything that I wanted to do with them, I will never do ... "...

People, I wrote all this because I received a lot of questions on this topic. You better not ask me, because my views on life are very peculiar and you are unlikely to like it))) Do not be disappointed))) ...

Although, to be honest, I don’t care ... I always have something to do. As they say, life is not enough for me to embody all my ideas and desires ... But I will try))) This is My Life.

I beg you, do not forget: happiness is not in the village or the city, not in the mountains or on the plain, it is IN THE HEAD! Live as you want and do not compare your happiness with others. Anyway, no one will understand YOUR happiness))) If there were no evaluation and comparison of happiness, religions and values, there would be no wars ...

With love to you, your draw #Vetka