NOISE, LAUGHTER AND VOCATION  

The idea to take pictures of my large family appeared to me the moment I purchased my camera. That time I was just taking my first steps in photography and I needed characters, and a family was near. Mom and the younger ones are used to the fact that I take pictures of them all the time, they don't pay attention to me. Grandfather, on the contrary, laughs that I spend all the «film» on him. It's easy for me to take pictures of my family: they are open to me and know that this is important to me.

Beside me, there are five children in our family, and I am the oldest. The responsibility has always been on me. My peers could afford to do nothing but lessons, but our family life was inextricably linked with work.

At one time, my parents decided to engage in agriculture and bought a house in the village of Veselaya (Oryol region). My brothers and sisters and I helped our parents take care of the animals, feed the rabbits and lambs. Anyway, life in the village was difficult, but quite adventurous.

Going through the death of our stepfather was really painful, it drastically changed our lives. It became difficult for Mom to maintain the farm, so she sold the cattle and we returned to the city. We help mom in every way, because we know that it is difficult for her to raise us alone. Small children do not let her lose hope, because it is for them that she wants to live on.

Mutual aid and support help us cope with domestic difficulties. For instance, grandpa lives in a village next to ours. When we arrive, he does everything for us: cleans the road with his tractor, repairs the heating, brings food.

The main problem of a large family is noise: we laugh, we cry, we share everything, we gossip about each other. Conflicts happen, but we quickly come to their resolution. But birthdays in our family are real holidays!

The family I grew up in has become a school of life for me in terms of practical experience. I don't feel aggrieved that I was born in a large family. Of course, I would like to have some privacy and peace, more free time, but I do not feel underloved and I’m grateful to my parents. Maybe it's for the best that we weren't pampered and that I realized from childhood that I had to rely on myself, because my parents still have to raise the younger ones.

I've been thinking a lot about whether I want a big family, and I come to the conclusion that I don't. I would like to have one child. I think parenting is a vocation, like many other things in our life.