I don't really like photos with children and animals. Most often they have something sweet, glamorous, cute... But this is a purely subjective feeling, which I will not impose.

The Elena Shumilova's photos of this genre are completely different. They are very vital, somehow real, there is no sugar syrup and tenderness in them. It's a huge, beautiful world, bathed in a golden sun. Children discover this world, its beauty and complexity. Friendship and loneliness, love and charm of nature.

Elena is a self-taught photographer. She is an architect by education. But... "after my second child was born I began to spend a lot of time far away from Moscow, in a village in the Tver region, and gave up my work. And then I had an overwhelming desire to shoot and make it professional."

Elena spends six months with her family in Moscow, six months in the Andreapol district of the Tver region on lake Brosno, where she is engaged in farming. She has two sons — five-year-old Yaroslav and two-year-old Ivan. The main "heroes" of the most part of her photos are Helen's sons and the "inhabitants" of her farm.

I picked up and grouped the pictures by seasons. I thought, it will be interesting for you to look at them like this. The cycle, the circle of knowledge and understanding of the world. A year in a child's life is a huge period, adults have years come and go :)

Gold winter...

Extraordinary condition!

And this photo reminds me of Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine". The moment when the child begins to understand himself in this world.

"And he realized: that's what suddenly came to him and it will stay with him and will never leave. I'm ALIVE, he thought."

May sun

Gold summer...

Summer is leaving :)

I love this photo, it is kind of a fairy tale.

Waiting for a miracle :)

The talented and distinctive works of Elena Shumilova have attracted attention of foreign media, particularly the famous British newspaper DailyMail. There were exhibitions in Russia, where Elena's works were presented, however, she didn't go to them.