There are more than one hundred nationalities and ethnic groups living in Russia. In the big cities there are few people who can claim to be pure Russian by origin. According to the statistics, the population of the country is decreasing every year by forty to fifty thousand people, and as a whole its growth is due to the high level of migrant workers from the Caucasus region and the republics of Central Asia.
I made pictures of young couples in Saint-Petersburg as they slept early in the morning. They are waiting not only for a new life to be born, but also waiting to see what the future holds for their children in a society where nationality based conflict has grown stronger every year, and
in 2010 opened fighting and demonstrations around this issue took place.
Jana Romanova was born in 1984 in Russia, and got a degree in journalism from Saint-Petersburg State University. Her long-term documentary projects were selected for a number of exhibitions in Russia, in 2011 her works were included in the Backlight Festival exposition (Finland). She got several prizes and honorable mentions all over the world, such as PDN Photo Annual (USA) in 2011 and Photography Book Now by Blurb 2011 in documentary category. Currently she cooperates with Russian Reporter magazine in Russia and Anzenberger agency worldwide. In 2011 she became a teacher of photography at the Faculty of Photojournalists in Saint-Petersburg.
Awards 2012 – 3d prize in “People” at International Photography Awards by Lucie Foundation, USA;
2011 – Bratislava Portfolio Review, 3d priz;
2011 - Photography Book Now, Honorable mention (documentary); 2011 – PDN Photo Annual (documentary);
2011 – Px3 Prix de la Photographie Paris, Honorable mention;
2010 - 2nd prize in "Young Man in 21st Sentury", Lithuania;
2010 – Finalist of the Vilnius PhotoCircle Festival, Lithuania;
