"Significant features"

Initially, photographer Alexei Shevtsov planned to remove the “heroic story of a family with a special child”. But when he met Cyril, Maxim and their parents, everything changed

Cyril and Maxim - their native brothers live in Nizhny Novgorod, in an ordinary family. Dad is a lawyer, mom - an economist by education, has recently become a housewife. Apartment, car, on weekends a trip to the village to the grandmother. Family holidays, meetings with friends, campaigns in the entertainment park, to the football stadium, in the store and hairdresser. Each weekly morning - in the kindergarten, and in the evening - home, where in the kitchen there is a dinner that my mother prepared. A simple story.

Maxim (left) and Kirill (right) are waiting for the bus at the stop on the way from the kindergarten home photo: Alexey Shevtsov

There are six to Cyril, Maxim three. They are very similar. General toys, almost the same clothing and a frame of glasses.

But Cyril has a Down syndrome.

Brothers

I was introduced to the innovation center “Shine” with the family of Cyril and Maxim - he was one of the co -organizers of open football training for children with this diagnosis. Initially, I planned that I would shoot a story about a child with Down syndrome and his parents who are engaged in football. How it is not easy for them (and this is true): the child is capricious, parents support him and motivate him in every possible way. There was some kind of heroic story in my head about overcoming difficulties "a family with a special child." But I understood that this is a lot. Therefore, I just decided to start shooting in the hope that I would illuminate me and I will find my turn of the topic.

Maxim and Kirill in the entertainment park photo: Alexey Shevtsov

And he was found - after the second shoot, where I made a frame with Maxim and Cyril running in different directions in red baseball caps against the background of the blue wall, this is my favorite photograph of all shooting. As a result, the shots, where the brothers are together, made up the backbone of the photo station.

Similar

Maxim Fidget, his interests are changing rapidly. Machines and toys based on cartoons are tired. Now he is again in search. Probably, therefore, where Maxim is a lot of fun, a cavard reigns and things are scattered. Cyril has more constant hobbies. For more than a year he has been engaged in football. He trains once a week with dad. Now he is very interested in birds. He prepares for school and goes to special classes.

Maxim House Photo: Alexey Shevtsov

Maxim and Cyril somehow interact without words. Sometimes they just diverge in different directions, and everyone finds his own occupation. Then, at some point, they also converge without words and begin to play together on the railway or watch TV. Just without saying a word. In the family, Maxim is more physically active, and Cyril is more “meditative”, or something. He is more smooth in movements and peers into objects longer.

Kirill and Maxim in a children's hairdresser photo: Alexey Shevtsov

But the more you communicate with Cyril and Maxim, the more they are erased and so barely noticeable differences between them, they just look like a difference in temperament. You begin to think: are these so -called features really really significant?

Opening

The shooting lasted four months. The work went easily. Parents of the boys, as it seemed to me, themselves became interested in almost immediately. It seems to me that this is just an unexpected experience for them with an incomprehensible, but curious result.

The most interesting was the shooting in the village house of the grandmother Cyril and Maxim - an abundance of flowers and textures. And the most unusual, perhaps, shooting the road home from a kindergarten: in half an hour the picture was constantly changing. Road, stop, bus, road, entrance.

Maxim and Kirill Home Photo: Alexey Shevtsov

When the shooting ended at the end of October, I thought that it still had to be removed. But then I realized that no matter what the story will not change, you won’t change the accents differently: I never saw significant differences between Cyril and Maxim during the shooting. And this, of course, is the main discovery. They both quite harmoniously exist in the world that mom and dad created for them, and each of them lives in their own way, personal and general.

Cyril with dad (in the center) in a football class. The organizer of the lesson is the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Public Organization “The Innovation Center “ Shine ” to support children and adults with Down syndrome photo: Alexey Shevtsov Maxim plays on the railway, Cyril watches a cartoon on TV photo: Alexey Shevtsov Kirill and Maxim in the entertainment park photo: Alexey Shevtsov Kirill in the village of grandmother photo: Alexey Shevtsov Maxim and Kirill in the village of grandmother photo: Alexey Shevtsov Kirill in the village of grandmother photo: Alexey Shevtsov Maxim and Kirill in the village photo: Alexey Shevtsov Kirill and Maxim photo: Alexey Shevtsov Kirill, mom and maxim in the village of grandmother photo: Alexey Shevtsov Children with Down syndrome family