Virgin land: the life of former prisoners in the Kazakh steppe

“Virgin” is a photo project about the lives of former prisoners and their families in a small town in the North of Kazakhstan. For these families, often the biggest problem is the period of acclimatization after release from prison, as many had been in prison for 20 years or more. Photographer Mikael Hellstrom (Mikael Hellstrom) filmed this project during my trips to Kazakhstan between 2005 and 2012. In some cases, time seems to have stopped between visits. But some people earlier were shot by photographer, was behind bars again, and someone died because of problems associated with alcohol or tuberculosis.