Karat — Sky over St. Petersburg

Photographs and text by Wolfgang Müller

Ten-year-old Lena leans against the rough brick wall, shoulders slouched, her hand daintily holding a cigarette, white smoke lazily escaping her cherry lips.

She lives in St. Petersburg, a city that has remade itself after years of decline and turmoil. But today, behind the city's pretty façade of new buildings, there is a hidden world that harbors St. Petersburg's lost children.

In "Karat," Wolfgang Müller reveals the tragic lives of children who live in the barren roofs and attics of old buildings above the city.

They are often orphans who have run away from abusive orphanages or children escaping unhealthy and apathetic homes.

Through his photographs, Müller captures the immaturity and lost innocence of St. Petersburg's street children, depicting the casual acceptance of a life ruled by basic survival and the daily fix. His unique talent is his ability to juxtapose the innocent with the dangerous — capturing the awful paradox of children living as adults.

Lena, skipping "like an angel from roof to roof," lives in an attic with 12 other children, ages ranging from nine to 24. She left home since her parents told her, "You need stuff? — Earn it yourself."

So she does, begging on the streets, though she is not proud of it. "Often, it's embarrassing to beg." She says, "I don't dare approach adults with kids. And sometimes, men or women I ask will just scream at me."

Inside the graffitied walls and down the iron staircases, the young inhabitants indulge in various drugs, most preferring glue and "karat," a cheap Russian shoe polish, since it is cheap and easily available. In Russia, according to a study by Médecin du Monde, the average drug consumer age is 13.

Minors are the largest group suffering from AIDS and HIV. In one photograph, a young boy gazes at the camera indifferently, hugging his knees. His name is Kolya, a 13-year-old boy who works as a prostitute. When asked what he wished for, Kolya replied, "If I had some money, I would get me a gun — and put it to my head."

The children tell their stories through his photographs, gaining a voice that is ignored in their day-to-day life.

Behind the façade of a modern St. Petersburg, Müller is careful to remind us that these children are — despite everything — still children.

About Wolfgang Müller

Photographer Wolfgang Müller has continuously traveled Eastern Europe. Following his 1998 account of ten-year-old Sanya from Odessa, in 2000 and 2001, he went to St. Petersburg where for nine months he photographed children and youths living in the streets.

He has received various awards for his work — and placed second in the UNICEF 2002 Photo of the Year.