1st place
gold star award
Eduard Korniyenko
russian federation 
title
PUMPING IRON IN RUSSIA
An additional impetus to this semi-legal sport took off even more with the growth of Arnold Schwarzenegger's popularity. Today, when the ban is lifted, bodybuilding popularity has not diminished. The only difference is that some of the clubs moved from the basements into modern fitness centers, although the basement "iron-pumping" remains. A couple of times a year they climb the podium during vatious amateur and even professional tournaments.
Here you can meet anyone - tax inspectors and businessmen, housewives and popular TV presenters. As before, no matter social status, whether you live in a small town in the center of Siberia, or in a big city in the south of Russia, the only important thing is - these people want their body look perfect, and be admired by others.
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entry description
Bodybuilding. In the Soviet period, the type of athletics known as "bodybuilding" was not welcomed by official institutions as "wrong", as opposed to the "right" weight lifting included in the Olympic program. But people everywhere, from small towns in the far North-East, in Siberia, in Moscow or at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, persisted by going to the "sweat boxes", equipped in the cellars, to "build a body." Jammed western magazines with images of unrealistically muscled male and female bodies passed from hands to hands.An additional impetus to this semi-legal sport took off even more with the growth of Arnold Schwarzenegger's popularity. Today, when the ban is lifted, bodybuilding popularity has not diminished. The only difference is that some of the clubs moved from the basements into modern fitness centers, although the basement "iron-pumping" remains. A couple of times a year they climb the podium during vatious amateur and even professional tournaments.
Here you can meet anyone - tax inspectors and businessmen, housewives and popular TV presenters. As before, no matter social status, whether you live in a small town in the center of Siberia, or in a big city in the south of Russia, the only important thing is - these people want their body look perfect, and be admired by others.
about the photographer
Born in Stavropol,Russia,in 1974,Eduard Korniyenko became a professional photographer in 2000. In 2002 he joined the Russian Union of Journalists.At present,Korniyenko is a full-time photo-correspondent for the regional newspaper Stavropol Pravda and a freelancer for the news agency REUTERS.Several international online news outlets have published Korniyenko's photographs.His work as a photojournalist has focused on developments in Northern Caucasus,which has experienced ethnic and intercultural conflict and political and economic instability.back to gallery
