THE FROG HOUSE (2024)
The town of Beryoza has been founded more than half a thousand years ago. Like any old town, this place has been gradually growing new buildings and houses century after century. The key places here are administrative buildings, markets, shopping complexes. All this is a grown-up material world. In Bereza we discovered another parallel world — a child’s world. It will be much easier to notice it if you look around through the eyes of a child. Let’s take a walk on the city map. In summer time the frog-house is one of the central places where children gather. A small oval-shaped lake is located in one of the districts of Bereza — North Town. On one side of the reservoir is backed by a birch grove, on the other side along the shore are scattered tables, benches, sun beds and a lifeguard station. They are painted in bright colors and from afar look like Lego construction parts scattered on the grass and sand. One part of the lake has been taken over by frogs. Their choral croaking begins in mid-spring and lasts for a couple months. Anyone in North Township can become an unwitting listener to this opera. All it takes is opening a window. The second part of the frog pond is given to kids for the summer. Despite the area of several pools, children can swim here without fear. The depth only in rare places reaches one and a half meters. Any adult can cross the lake even on foot without swimming skills.
Ducks and swans are probably the main inhabitants of the frogpond. They feel so much at home here that in summer they can sunbathe on the grass next to people. Frogtown is able to please everyone. Fishermen come here for pike, children for water procedures, and birds raise their young near the pond. The area of Tyshkevicha and Enthusiastov streets is considered by locals to be the outskirts of the city. When you enter these yards for the first time, it seems that it is the outskirts not only of the city, but also of the world. Behind the slender row of new buildings stretches endless fields and it seems that there is nothing else behind them. If the Earth were flat, it would certainly end here. These places are especially beautiful under the setting sun. Its rays are the first in the city to touch these very yards. In the evening, the young inhabitants of the new five-story buildings go jogging along the edge of the Earth. If from any point on the outskirts of the city to start unraveling the tangle of streets, its thread will eventually lead to the center — to the temple of Peter and Paul. It is the heart of the city. On weekends the Sunday school at the temple receives its pupils. And we too will be welcomed here with all cordiality. We will spend with the guys and their mentors no holiday and shooting. Initially it seemed that meekness and humility reign in this world. In fact, it turned out that every child goes to classes with joy and is open not only to new knowledge, but also to others. It was as if we were welcomed into the family.
The largest number of yards is located in the city center. The areas between Lenina and Jubilee Streets accommodate a stadium, a court, a swimming pool, and several schools at once. This is where Nadia stopped for the first time when she came to Bereza. In these courtyards we did our first children’s shoot. The funny thing is that the local kids immediately became more interested not in taking pictures, but in taking pictures. Already during the second meeting we gave the kids an impromptu photography lesson. It is amazing how confidently children’s hands can hold a camera of several kilograms. Maybe from these first shots some of them will develop a love for creativity. A little further away is the Central Park with several attractions. Their number depends on the day. On weekends, all trampoline castles from small to large will be inflated and even launch a merry-go-round. If the circus comes to town, its tent will be placed in this park. Here we had the opportunity to shoot weddings, concerts and traveling circus performers. Next to the carousel in the park put a children’s playground and a new playground. A stone dragon guards these castles. It seems as if it was put here a thousand years ago. The dragon is not painted as often as the benches, but this only adds to the charm of the tailed sentinel. Children love to climb up on the stone watchman and stroke his massive but kind face.
The park is bordered by a fence on one side and a river on the other. Children often come here to fish. When you look at them from the bridge, you get the unmistakable feeling that you are watching characters from the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn come to life. In Bereza the kids can gather in any place that arouses their keen interest. One of them is the yard of Sophia’s private house. It is located as if in a lowland and surrounded on all sides by apartment buildings. On this territory of a few hectares there is a farm of goats, geese, hens and a rooster. It all looks more like an ark. Sofya’s Ark.
