it's been already 13 years that we know each other. I perfectly remember the first day we've met when I arrived in the middle of a school year in her class. our teacher of german said to me : "you'll see there is another russian girl in our class, well she lived in Austria actually but she speaks russian. her name is Anastassia, she is gothic, and she is always late", those were the first words that I've heard about her.
I waited for her as for a savior from this horror (I always hated school and especially when I moved from Russia to France speaking no word of french, changing schools every few month). and then about 15-20 minutes late arrived that shy little girl with glasses and long dark hair all dressed up in black. I remember that we tried to speak in russian but it didn't worked, so we stick with french.
we were lost and unhappy teenagers feeling uncomfortable in our skin. but we've found each other. since this first day we became close friends and were inseparable. she introduced me to her boyfriend and her friends and I found myself a little family of weird guys all dressed up in black wearing dark make-up all over the eyes but I loved them more than anything.
we've spend crazy times together and I cherish all the memories I have of us being lost teenage weirdos. I think in some way we helped a lot one another, supporting and loving as we could. we laughed together very often, more then we cried anyway, I remember having stomach ache because of our laughters. we did a lot of "first things" together : first loves, first brake-ups, first confidences, first alcohol overdoses, first concerts, first work experiences, etc etc. we lived and worked in French Alps, two years in a row during the summer, in the hotel, which was a hard but very cool experience. I did my first pictures ever, essentially of her of course, in that little house where we were living together with another cook who was working with us. and actually she was the first one saying that I have something special in my pictures. there were a lot of funny moments we lived in those mountains, being young, wild and crazy. the village was tiny and people were looking at as as if we were aliens and at work noone liked us thinking that we were too weird, but we didn't really care that much... it changed later when we started to hang out all together. I know that we've shocked the habitants of that place more than once ! I remember us dancing and singing under the pouring rain almost naked in the middle of the road...
things weren't always perfect, and somehow we lost a track of each other for a while, she took one road, me another, I moved to Paris she stayed in Nice. we saw each other occasionally when I was coming back for the holidays in Nice, but things weren't the same. I guess we needed this time apart to evolve and understand things on our own. and then about 2 years ago we found each other again, transformed. and now there is us as before, as An(n)a but more grown-ups, and I can feel our unique bond even when we are apart. she is a role model for me and I'm so proud being her friend. she is the kind of person who wants to make this world a better place by helping people. here comes her web-site :
www.nastyaperfilova.com
this is my first real shooting of her since years...
