Ivanova started visiting villages all over the country in 2009 while working as a photographer for a Russian magazine. She instantly fell in love with the atmosphere. "There is a special feeling of freedom, mainly due to the way of communication, totally different from customs of the city," she explains. "There are no strangers, everyone is involved. The relationship could be anything but formal, estranged, cold. At times there are real dramas and intrigues but everyone cares about everyone else. I discovered a closed community of people living the life completely different from mine, so my key interest was to capture it from the inside.

"In 2013 I was invited to an expedition to Vologda region, to a small village on the bank of the river," she continues. "It's a very beautiful place with thick forests, fast Northern rivers, tough people. It took about six hours driving from the nearby town Vologda. If you don't know the place it's extremely unlikely you find it. I was lucky to live with the locals, go mowing with them, make pancakes and look after their children. A year later I came back there to shoot on my own. I didn't have to look for the topic: I was lucky to see the village day, a holiday which is celebrated in villages all over Russia on different summer days."