Natalya Saprunova wins Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award 2022

A reindeer herder, Igor Chuprov, speeds on his sled past residential buildings in the village of Lovozero.

Saami reindeer herder © Natalya Saprunova

A reindeer, Igor Chuprov, herder speeds on his sled past residential buildings in the village of Lovozero. He has just taken part in a reindeer driving competition during Prazdnik Severa ("the festival of the North"). Formerly semi-nomadic, the Saami community is largely represented in this Òrural colonyÓ of 3,000 inhabitants. / Kildin, a language for Russian Saamis survivors

A man carries wood from the wreckage of an airliner which he uses as a hangar.

Wood storage © Natalya Saprunova

Andrei Zhvavyi, belongs to the Saami ethnic group from Russia. He brings back wood from the wreckage of an airliner that he uses as a hangar. It was his father who, working for Murmansk airport, was able to recover the wreckage of an Aeroflot plane in the 1990s. / Kildin, a langage for Russian Sámis survivors

Two Saami villagers drag a boat across a field of grass.

© Natalya Saprunova

Uliana loves to manage the boat during summer holidays at her uncle at Chalmny-varre village. / Kildin, a langage for Russian Sámis survivors

Uliana is knitting a decoration while an older woman lies on a bed behind her.

Craftswoman © Natalya Saprunova

Uliana, like a real Saami girl who should know how to sew clothes for the whole family, loves doing things by hand. She is knitting a decoration for the cat of her uncle's house neighbor, Baba Luba. This grand-mother is the only year-round resident of the officially non-existent village of Chalmny-varre, closed by the Soviets in the 1960s to deplace people. There is no electricity or running water. There are four other houses left and they remain empty. Chalmny-varre was a Saami village of reindeer herders and the name translates as the eyes of the forest. / Kildin, a language for Russian Sámis survivors

Shaman's drum © Natalya Saprunova

Elena Yakovleva, Uliana's aunt, prepares her drum to sound it and perform a ritual in front of a sacred stone in the Saami mini-village that she has reconstructed for tourists. She inherited the drum from her brother who was a real shaman. The shamans were hunted down by the Orthodox, then by the Soviets. They were constantly threatened with death, and their drums were often destroyed. / Kildin, a langage for Russian Saamis survivors

A Saami person descends a set of stairs while another person waits for them, slightly lower down in the left of the image.

© Natalya Saprunova

A young Saami girl holds a fishing pole, which is bent beneath the weight of the fish which dangles from the line. She stands at the front of a boat on a lake.

© Natalya Saprunova

Women wearing traditional Saami clothing - blue dresses with white patterned shawls and headbands - while holding red flags.

© Natalya Saprunova

Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award 2022

Natalya Saprunova awarded for project depicting Russian Sámis.

In 2017, Contemporary Heroine Marilyn Stafford launched a photography award alongside FotoDocument. Every year they receive applications from women photographers working in the documentary field. The direction is clear: the winner must highlight a social issue and provide a sustainable solution to the problem she depicts.

In July 2022, FotoDocument announced this year’s winner: Natalya Saprunova.

Natalya Saprunova was born in 1986 in the arctic region of Russia in Murmansk. After years working as a French teacher in her home country, she moved to Paris where she studied at École des Métiers de l’Information. She decided to stay in France, attaining citizenship, and is now part of the French photo agency Zeppelin. She also teaches photography at Graine de Photographe school in Paris.

When Natalya is not passing on her knowledge to students, she works on her own documentary reportages. Her projects highlight topics such as the transformation of societies, identity, youth, spirituality, and femininity.

The winning series of the Marilyn Stafford Award 2022, titled “Kildin, a Language for Russian Sámis Survivors”, depicts the Sami culture in northern Russia.

There are around 1,500 Sami living in villages in northern Russia. Natalya says that communism destroyed the Samis whole nomadic existence, and their reindeer herds were organised into collective farms called kolkhozes. They were banned from speaking their language, wearing their traditional clothes, or celebrating their culture – so it almost completely disappeared.

Natalya told the Guardian that she has always been fascinated by indigenous people. This award will help her continue the project and focus on documenting the Samis own solutions to the safeguarding of their culture and traditions, while adjusting to a modern lifestyle.

It is evident that Natalya has a strong passion for making the world aware of this marginalised group. We are grateful that she enlightens us in an effort to preserve the culture of the indigenous people in her home country.

Read more about The Marilyn Stafford FotoReportage Award here.

By Fanny Beckman