Sasha Borodinova & Leyla Masharipova are from Moscow and go by the name Dark Youth. They use photography solely as a means to document yesterday because “usually nobody remembers anything about it.” But it’s this simplicity in purpose that produces such a real image of their lives and a view of Moscow youth. Sasha and Leyla both agree that they don’t have any particular approach to photography and it will always be secondary to hunting for fun - “we just find our days curious and we love to keep it in our minds, because these stories are the only thing that our useless lives leave us tomorrow.”
What I love about their images is how they seem completely timeless and free and undefinable. You can see they’re doing whatever the fuck they want with the life and the situation that’s been put before them, and moreover they are fully aware of this. There is no sense of pretentiousness in their photos, which is pretty rare, and their experiences steer away from being depicted as anything similar to the ‘official’ version of visual reality.
They say being young is exhausting and they are always tired, but the best thing about it is they’re “not afraid of any trauma or disease ’cause we’re hard-boned and unbreakable like cats, you see.”