For today's Sunday's With Hans, New York photographer Hans Fahrmeyer put his focus on the many incredible men of Russian decent whose families over the last few generations have immigrated to the United States. Currently, the Russian American population is estimated to be close to 3.13 million.
New York became the home for many, with Brighton Beach having one of the highest populations of Russian-speaking immigrants in the country. Brighton Beach is an Oceanside neighborhood in the southern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It's beautiful beaches create the perfect summer destination spot for residents and tourists, not to mention its proximity to the amusement parks in Coney Island. The neighborhood also served as the setting for the 1983 Neil Simon play, and later movie, Brighton Beach Memoirs.
Although the area was once home to the Russian Mafia, many of the Russian immigrants in New York actually immigrated after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. By mid-1993 close to 50% of Russians were living in poverty which prompted a large wave of both political and economic emigration from Russia.
A notable part of the 1991—2001 immigration wave consisted of scientists and engineers who, faced with extremely poor job market at home. By 2003 there were estimated to be about 20,000 Russian scientists working in the United States and the Russian software engineers were responsible for a large percentage of the products coming from Microsoft.
In the world of female models, many women of Russian decent have become some of the most popular women to photograph and hit the runways. Like everything connected to modeling and fashion, men usually get the short end of the stick, but thanks to these images and the new video from Hans Fahrmeyer, the men from Russia get the love they deserve!
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE from Hans Fahrmeyer on Vimeo.
See more images from this series on Han's tumblr HERE:
