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Since 2012 the photographer Siarhei Hudzilin began to document the everyday life in the near-border regions of the Republic of Belarus. Stories were told by visual journalist and they cover a wide scope of people and events. There are young people who are trying to make their life beyond the big cities and official state holidays on the one hand, veterans of war and elderly people who live out their lives in these regions on the other hand.

The main idea of documentary multimedia is based on everyday life’s description not only the near-border regions but the whole country in the «here and now» mode.
The Siarhei Hudzilin’s photos and video by were synchronized by time his shooting, broadcasting of the Belarusian TV-programs, social network’s movies, computer game’s video and random glitch effects of VHS-cassette.

All of these create peculiar visual narrative and new reality - a kind of the TV Shows about Belarusian society life. After the USSR collapse this society cannot choose its way to development and remains on the near-border condition.

Everyday life in the near-border towns of the Republic of Belarus has been undergoing significant transformations in the recent decades. On one hand, urbanization processes keep affecting the rural lifestyle that had been forming here over the course of centuries. On the other hand, the drift of the population into larger cities causes stagnation in the economic and social activity in the region. The “near-border state” is a multilevel socio-cultural phenomenon that has formed on the territory of Belarus historically and has been affecting the lives of Belarusians not only in the outskirts, but in the big cities as well. The “Along the Edge” project is an attempt to visually describe the current state of the near-border regions of Belarus, the day-to-day life and the suburban identity in the Belarusian society.

Camera, photo, production - Siarhei Hudzilin
Text, subtitles - Antanina Stebur