Russia's Street Kids

This series of photographs provides a very bried glimpse into the life of a gang of street children in St. Petersburg, Russia. They spend their days working at a flower market and inhaling toxins (gasoline, paint, etc.). At night, they migrate between a local shelter and the sewage- and waste-infested basements of apartment buildings. They are only a few of an entire generation of children who have been left to survive on Russia's streets.

Nastya, 17, Misha, 15, and Alesha, 16 make their way from a local shelter to the flower market where they hang out and perform odd jobs for the workers there.

Misha (centre) inhales a bag of wood-glaze paint, which he hides in the sleeve of his sweatshirt.

Alesha and Misha clean the dump behind the flower market. Three hours of work earned them 30 rubles ($1) each.

Pasha, 16, is accosted by a local police officer in the underground passageway to the metro. Pasha was under warrant for arrest for running away from the orphange to which he was assigned. Pashsa says that he was abused there and refuses to go back. The police harrass him and arrest him on a daily basis, but at the end of the day they let him go.

The boys play a game of "Duraki" (idiot).

Misha and Alesha ride down the seemingly endless escalator to the metro station.

'Bob', 18, manages to get his hands on a bag of hotdogs, which he readily shares with his friends.

The boys go for a smoke outside of Doctors of the World--the largest shelter for street kids in Moscow. The shelter feeds the children, and prodives shelter for the night for any children who would like to stay. Although their ten beds are no match for the thousands of street children in St. Petersburg, the beds often remain empty, as the children prefer sleeping in filthy basements over staying at a shelter where they are forced to get up and get out at 8 a.m. because the shelter can't afford to stay open during the day.

Pasha inhales a bag of toluol (wood-glaze paint).

After a police invasion of their basement, during which they were beaten on the back with rubber batons, the boys were left to sleep outside in a park.

Chasidim of Florida