Documentary Projects Shortlist

Strange Love challenges the conventional narrative of ‘natural enemies, of East versus West’, offering a striking visual exploration of life in post-industrial Russia and the USA. By revealing unexpected similarities between the two nations, the work engages and disorients the viewer, forcing them to question old assumptions and rethink geopolitical divides. In doing so, a fundamental question is raised: Are the subjects’ lives really all that different? Can we, at times, even distinguish between them in a set of photographs? And how often do we get it wrong? This leads to a reasonable — and some may say contentious — proposition: If it’s hard to tell the difference, what is the difference?