Lost boys: the make believe world of Ivan and the Moon

Russian-born, Amsterdam-based photographer Daria Tuminas first met Ivan, 16, and his younger brother Andrey, 14, nicknamed Moon, in the remote village of Zherd in northern Russia in 2010. She was struck by the pair who were noticeably different from other teenagers in the village: they seemed to live in a fairytale land, relished their natural surroundings, went hunting and fishing, and had no desire to move to the city. Tuminas, whose work has been exhibited in galleries from London to Houston, travelled back to Zherd several times and, as she got to know the brothers better, discovered they had deeply entrenched values based on family, the motherland and patriarchy. The result is Ivan and the Moon, a series of photos of the brothers who Tuminas describes as “Mature and childish. Naive and enigmatic.”