Since 2010 I started to work on my long time project dedicated to the women from former Soviet Space and when with Sputnik we decided to make a project in Belarus I was naturally looking for a women story to do there so I can add to the series . I always wanted to do a story about one of those marriage agencies , could be in Russia, Ukrainie or Belarus. While working in Odessa few years ago I have seen one of those big meetings organized by such agency for the clients coming from abroad . When researching that topic I was expecting that all marriage agencies are those bizarre places where last thing people look for is love or a family life .I was surprised and happy to find the agency in Grodno which was not like that at all . It operates transparently and is run by real people for a real people. It took me one unsuccessful trip to Minsk before I found them. During that trip I found Grodno contact while meeting with people working for La Strada with which Agency in Grodno cooperates. (La Strada International is European network against trafficking in human beings with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe) . With that contact I was ready to do my story. I was just waiting for the wedding of Agency clients to happen and have a permission to photograph it . When Natalia and Filip who married in July gave me green light (with fantastic help of Maya, the Agency Owner ) I bough the ticket and went there to start my story with a photos of their wedding.
More later.....
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If you as a reader of that post might have some questions please ask them -I will try to answer in my next post.
