Russia's Disappearing Movie Theaters

Sergey Novikov, a Moscow-based photographer, noticed the kind of movie theaters he grew up with were falling into disrepair. Some were even disappearing completely. Sensing depressing fates for rest of these Soviet-era structures, Novikov began documenting them, spending two years searching and shooting every old theater he could find.

The result is "Breathless," a photo series containing dozens of the Constructivist-style theaters in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Novikov knows that as technology and cultural expectations change, theaters inevitably do too. But he longs for the ones he knew as a child, places that added something to their neighborhoods. "They remind me of great Russian cinematography," says Novikov. "We are losing lovely buildings, district cultural centers, and probably the perception of cinema as art."