The town of Nikel is one of the numerous single-industry towns in modern Russia. It is located in the North-Western part of the Kola Peninsula, 123 km North-West of Murmansk and a few kilometers from the Norwegian border.
It was founded by Finnish companies in 1935 for the extraction of copper-nickel ore. In 1944 it became Soviet settlement and got its modern name from the chemical element of the same name. The growing demand of the USSR for Nickel-based superalloys determined the economic profile and prosperity of the town for decades.
However, after the disappearance of the Soviet Union, Nikel faced social decline and outflow of population. Nowadays Nickel and other valuable elements are still being mined, which allows the town to stay afloat and not become a ghost town. I decided to focus on youths as the most mobile and active part of Nikel population. I became interested in how young people live in one of the most Northern Russian single-industry towns, what worries them, and most importantly, how and where they see their future.
About Aleksey Ivanov
Aleksey Ivanov is an independent documentary and portrait photographer. Born in 1984, he currently lives alternately in the Siberian city of Chita and Moscow. He started his career as a documentary photographer in 2018. He studies photography in The School of Modern Photography “Docdocdoc”. In his personal projects he explores social issues, small towns and communities, as well as his native region – Transbaikalia and Eastern Siberia.
