The images and texts resulting from these travels unpack the complex, multivalent story of this contested region, remaining all the more relevant for the insight they provide into the ‘true face of Russia’ post-Sochi, and following the annexation of the Crimea, the brutal murder of Boris Nemtsov and the current war in Ukraine.

We partnered with Rob and Arnold from the project’s early start in 2009 and were involved in all its communications and publications. Together, we created an urgent tone of voice and overarching project identity. As the project developed, we conceptualized and designed 4 annual publications: ‘Sanatorium’, ‘Empty Land, Promised Land, Forbidden Land’, ‘Sochi Singers’ and ‘The Secret History of Khava Gaisanova’, as well as numerous spin-offs like poster campaigns, newspaper exhibitions, and the smaller Sketchbook publication series to name only a few.

When the Sochi Project reached its completion just before the opening of the Olympic Winter Games in 2014, we designed the 392-page retrospective book ‘An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus’ which was published by the Aperture Foundation. At the same time, the full Sochi Project contents were launched as an extensive website, accessible in English, Dutch and Russian. The final platform we developed is that of a traveling exhibition, which first opened at the Antwerp based Fotomuseum (FOMU) and has been traveling around the globe ever since.