Catch a fire: a photographer’s quest to seize the spirit of youth

Photographer Ivan Peretz takes pictures for some of Russia’s leading magazines including Bolshoi Gorod, Afisha and L’Officiel. But his first love is shooting his friends. Most of his photographs are published on his Tumblr, Bureau for the Regulation of Pine Cone Burning, a name which emerged after he and his friends began burning Californian pine cones at house parties. “They’re the best substitute for incense sticks. They smell like a nice bonfire,” says the 29-year-old St Petersburg native. Through his photos, Peretz chronicles the lives of his friends — and a blow-up dinosaur that occasionally makes an appearance. “I try to tell a story in a single shot,” he says.