Claudine Doury, AMOUR, 2019

Amour diaries photographer Claudine Doury thirty year quest along the banks of the Amur River in Russia. She journeyed along its banks in 1991, 1997 and 2018, making images that meet together in this book. As generations pass, the surroundings of the river shift and the traditions of the Siberian-descended people – wither.

During her ‘odyssey’, the ties Claudine Doury patiently wove with the families and landscapes around the river translated into powerful and timeless images. Amour brings together her black and white and colour photographs with archival images, and reveals the photographer’s intimate and sensitive relationship with this territory and its history.

‘All they know is that in winter people arrive from the far north on reindeers to buy some bread, but not even the old men know what sort of people they are or where they come from.’

Anton Chekhov, The Island: A journey to Sakhalin, Washington Square Press, 1967