2001 Photo Contest, Daily Life, 2nd prize
Photographer

Bruno Stevens

for Paris Match

01 August, 2000

A Russian sentinel on the lookout for Chechen rebels. By August conditions in Grozny were miserable and the population had halved. Food was hard to come by. The remaining residents, mostly women and children, attempted a return to ordinary life with no gas, electricity or running water. Distribution systems had collapsed, and finding food required disproportionate effort. People made risky trips to nearby villages and the neighboring republic of Ingushetia for provisions, and as winter approached the situation became critical. Russian soldiers kept up constant surveillance by day, but some rebel fighters had returned and moved through the city at night.

About the photographer

Bruno Stevens

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