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THE RANGE
Art project by Anton Lange

The largest contemporary photo
and video project dedicated to the Russian Caucasus.
The Range.
The Caucasus
from Sea to Sea
iis a project covering the length of a journey along the entire northern slope of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range from the Caspian to the Black Sea. The major shooting process was made during the 2014-2015 in partnership with the Northern Caucasus Resorts JSC. A poetic narrative about Russia's most authentic region.
Unknown territories turn anyone of us into a pioneering explorer. Combined with the nature of the Caucasian mountains, wild and peculiar, hospitable, yet withdrawn, beautiful and menacing at the same time, this feeling of a pathfinder determined the inner nerve of the project, a string onto which we threaded the beads of expeditions.
The expedition routes were mapped along the northern macroslope of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range and included, first of all, the territories of tourism cluster development. The expeditions were linked to the highland Caucasus, and embraced the territories of all the republics: Dagestan, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, and Adygea.
Our expeditions started in the period of spring blossom on Dagestani plains. Keeping pace with the natural wave of alpine blossom, we headed west and upwards, in order to reach the highest points of the range, Elbrus and Bezengi, at the height of summer, and spend the golden autumn in the primeval forests of the Western Caucasus.
Alpine sage flowers are shot with gold after a fierce thunderstorm has rampaged through the Gunib Plateau. Vast uplands of Southern Dagestan lie higher than the forest belt and harbour a lush realm of alpine flora, rich in endemic plants of the Eastern Caucasus.
Late in October, hoarfrost is still feathering the upper field terraces in the Argun Gorge at the break of day, but the sun is already heating up lower areas. The Argun Gorge is an outdoor museum preserving the traces left by many centuries of harmonious unity between nature and human labour. Terraced fields are possibly the brightest example of the convergence between man and nature. Unfortunately, most of them have been abandoned since the middle of the 20th century.
The sight opening before your eyes at the upper brink of the forest on the Tsei-Loam mountain range bears a resemblance to equatorial rainforests. A humid veil of fog is dwindling to unravel the silhouettes of an astonishingly lush deciduous forest with an impassible shrub layer and succulent herbage taller than human scale. It is not uncommon to come across a deer or a bear in remote high-mountain areas where man rarely sets foot.
Dargavs is the largest necropolis of the Northern Caucasus comprised of 99 above-ground and subterranean crypts on the bank of the Midagrabindon River. Seen as a collection of dollhouses from a distance, this gloomy site has a reputation of the city of the dead, with the oldest crypt being at least four centuries old.
A photograph that could become an illustration for a textbook on geomorphology. The highland structure is rarely as distinctive to the naked eye as it is in the upper part of the Bezengi Gorge. The area well deserves the name of "the Caucasian Himalayas", marked by the colossal Bezengi Wall — part of the Greater Caucasus mountain range, which blocks the gorge with its intimidating mass. It includes three peaks surpassing 16,000 feet, and three more such peaks surround the location. The largest glacier in the Caucasus, Ullu-Chiran, slides down along the foot of the wall. The Besengi is the sternest area of the Caucasus, and the Bezengi Wall traverse is a legendary climbing route.
A dazzling golden autumn is a typical feature of the Western Caucasus. The Eastern Caucasus is almost forestless, whereas the woods of the central part of the Greater Caucasus range are mostly coniferous because of high altitudes, unfavourable for deciduous trees. The abundantly colourful autumn is a succinct portrait of the Western Caucasus with its humid and relatively low mountains.
The Red Planet: an unplanned flight to Mars. After travelling for a year and a half along the Greater Caucasus Range, we found ourselves on a flat, red plain covered with salty plants. Paradoxically, it is here that the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range is born: some twelve miles separate this salt-water lowland from the actual mountains.
Thanks to the assistance of JSC NCR, we obtained our courageous expedition helicopter,
which soon became an essential participant of the project,
along with an entire aircraft division.
Thanks to complex logistics, the help of a great many people in every republic of the North Caucasus, precise planning, and our intuition — in other words, the entire weird cobweb which occasionally gives birth to a good photograph —
we undertook an exciting eighteen-month journey with an ambition of showing the Caucasus the way it has never been seen before.
Our pilots' talent gave us a wonderful opportunity of seeing destinations accessible only to the most skilled mountaineers — or inaccessible at all.
We managed to gather a team of industry's best professionals in the same point of space and time,
including top-notch freeriders, pilots with expertise in high-altitude aerobatics,
and a shooting team with qualifications quite above average.
As a result, we may have pioneered staged heli-ski shooting with simultaneous drops
from two helicopters both in the vicinity of Mount Elbrus and in the Caucasus.
Although every participant of the action was an expert in his field, all of us discovered new horizons of interaction between helicopters, cameras, skiers, snowboarders and, most importantly, between the entire team and the landscape of the Greater Caucasus.
This 'project inside the project' culminated with a sportive, aerial and visual exploration of Mount Elbrus, as our group of freeriders descended from the peak beneath the Terskol Glacier through rocky couloirs almost to the foot of the Caucasus' principal peak.

Taken at the beginning of the 21st century, this instantaneous portrait of the Caucasus does not claim to be either impartial or comprehensive; just like any other artistic portrait, it bears the author's personal opinion and emotions.

The Range narrates the journey of an artist who followed a whimsical, sometimes even haphazard route, determined by nothing but the highland fate. It appears that the Caucasus is a place where life and destiny become one: you can try and plan your life, but destiny, embodied by the Caucasian mountains, will always make its adjustments.
"Indeed, what other place in our country can rival the Caucasus in terms of emotional intensity?
It can evoke both subconscious delight and apprehension in our hearts.
Local sceneries take your breath away not only by the steepness of their slopes,
but also by the effect of photographic grain created in real time by tenuous air,
and the vibrant beauty of alpine blossom.
Different areas of the Caucasus can be associated with various locations: Europe, Asia, Italy, or the Himalayas."
"Indeed, what other place in our country can rival the Caucasus in terms of emotional intensity?
It can evoke both subconscious delight and apprehension in our hearts.
Local sceneries take your breath away not only by the steepness of their slopes,
but also by the effect of photographic grain created in real time by tenuous air,
and the vibrant beauty of alpine blossom.
Different areas of the Caucasus can be associated with various locations: Europe, Asia, Italy, or the Himalayas."
Anton Lange is a professional biologist and traveller.
Out of habit, he remains loyal to film photography.
He has dedicated over ten years to the creation of Russia's visual
portrait and authored the legendary project
"Russia through a Train Window."

"I presumed that every bearer of the
Russian culture, which is characterized by a strong presence
of Caucasian images, must find a time
in his life for the Big Caucasian Journey."
Anton Lange is a professional biologist and traveller.
Out of habit, he remains loyal to film photography.
He has dedicated over ten years to the creation of Russia's visual
portrait and authored the legendary project
"Russia through a Train Window."

"I presumed that every bearer of the
Russian culture, which is characterized by a strong presence
of Caucasian images, must find a time
in his life for the Big Caucasian Journey."
Photo album
The first tangible outcome of the project
is the photo album "The Range.
The Caucasus from Sea to Sea."
This unique bilingual edition includes over 400 original images and texts telling the story of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range, its virgin nature and its peoples' historical roots and ways of life.
A limited-edition coffee table book, a collectable item, numbered and signed by the author.
Each book is in a separate box and could be a perfect gift for those in love with mountains and travelling.
Have a look inside the album
Selected sheets to give you the impression of a book design and content.
Buy / order the album
Send your email - we will contact you about the purchase of the album.
A semi-documentary and semi-fiction film titled "The Range.
The Caucasus from Sea to Sea" is currently in the making.
Several exhibitions have been held whilst the project was in production, including the central exhibition on the major Russian photo festival "Primeval Russia" in 2014. Professionally printed and placed in a baguette, photographs on the wall acquire a special magnetic appeal. You are welcome to order exclusive works, each numbered and signed by the author, to decorate your home or work place.
We have the most beautiful and poetic visual material on the Northern Caucasus and we are eager to share it with you.

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The Range. The Caucasus from Sea to Sea
Author and Artistic Director of the project Anton Lange in partnership with JSC Northern Caucasus Resorts
Photo group:
Assistant Photographer Victor Gubarev
Polaroids Anna Alekseeva

Film group:
Director Denis Deakonov
Script writer Ilya Boriskin
Cinematographer Valentin Sysoev
Executive production of the shooting process: Anton Lange, LLC Beautiful Country, Elena Rozhnova in particular

Prepublication:
Concept, photography, compilation: Anton Lange
Backstage Victor Gubarev, Anna Alekseeva, Tengiz Mokaev
Development of films Professional photo center PhotoPro
Contact printing Oleg Pekarskiy (PhotoPro)
File scanning and preparation: Alla Nikitina, Dmitry Karasev (PhotoPro)
Text Anton Lange, with the participation of Larisa Bakhmatskaya
Editor Oksana Vasiliadi
Proofreader Yuri Kotlyar
English translation Ksenia Khudadyan
Project design and prepress editing Studio ABCdesign: Dmitry Mordvintsev, Maxim Rodin, Anastasia Ageeva, Zirko Olga,
Svetlana Danilyuk, Ekaterina Pankratova
Curator, Executive Producer Anna Alekseeva
Printing house PNB-Print, Latvia

Web-site Oleg Nikolashkin

Author's Acknowledgements to:
Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Alexander Khloponin

Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasian Federal District Sergey Melikov

Ministry of the Russian Federation for North Caucasus Affairs Lev Kuznetsov

Heads of regions which participated in the implementation of the tourism cluster project in the North Caucasian Federal District, Krasnodar Krai, and the Republic of Adygea

Heads of regional agencies for tourism in the subjects of the North Caucasian and the Southern Federal Districts

Management of the Kurorty Severnogo Kavkaza (the Northern Caucasus Resorts)

Joint-Stock Company HeliAction Helicopter Company; Arseny Boldyrev, Alexander Davydov, Oleg Shishkov, Michael Petrov in particular

Representative Office of the Agency of Strategic Initiatives in the North Caucasian Federal District and Anvar Gadzhiev in particular

Primeval Russia Festival and Oleg Panteleev in particular

Nikon Company and Vladimir Volkov in particular Wonderfoto Company and Leonid Volozhin in particular

Heads and staff members of state nature reserves and conservation areas

K. G. Shaposhnikov's Caucasus State Nature Reserve (Federal State Budgetary Institution) Sergey Shevelev, Nikolay Yeskin,
Sergey Trepet ( Teberda State Biosphere)

State Biosphere Nature Reserve (Federal State Institution) Taulan Dzhukkaev, Yuri Sarkisyan, Ramazan Khubiev, Batyr Erkenov

North-Ossetian State Nature Reserve (Federal State Budgetary Institution) Akhsartag Mouraov, Konstantin Popov

Dagestansky State Nature Reserve (Federal State Budgetary Institution) Kurban Kuniev

Kabardino-Balkarian State Highland Nature Reserve Hadji-Murat Gazaev

Kurort Elbrus OJSC Khisa Bekkaev

Derbent State Architecture and Art Conservation Area (State Budgetary Institution) Ali Ibragimov Prielbrusye National Park (Federal State Budgetary Institution) Yuri Zalikhanov

Author's special thanks goes to:

Dagestan: Vitaly Demchenko, Said Yusupov, Magomed Labazan-Gadzhi, Eldar Nazaraliev, Saadula Batirov, Gadzhi Gadzhiev, Shamil Ammaev, Abdurakhman Abdurakhmanov, Savdat Abbasova, Dalgat Dalgatov, Magomed Magomedov, Gamzat Mukhumaev, Murad Dagirov, Murtazali Magomedov, Gadzhiabdulla Kutsulov, Ibragim Abdulaev, Tagi Bashirov, Alyas Magomedov, Magomedrasul Osmanov

Chechnya: Amrudi Edilgiriev, Yusep Magomaev, Ruslan Baysarov, Kanta Ibragimov, Maksim Bugaev, Razhap Musaev, Sayd-Emin Dzhabrailov

Ingushetia: Stanislav Aristov, Magomed Timurziev

Ossetia: Constantine Gabisov, Khetag Bitarov, Azamat Gagloev, Vilyam Gagiev, Tamara Kadieva, Nina Manukyan, Rudik Manukyan, Svetklana Akhmedova, Emma Aleksanyan

Kabardino-Balkaria: Kharun Baysiev, Magomed Gochaev and his family, Tengiz Mokaev, Aliy Anaev Mountaineers: Yuri Porokhnya, Kim Zaytsev Freeriders: Maria Kudimova, Svetlana Kuznetsova Gennady Khryachkov, Alexey Vodolazkin, Idris Uzdenov, Salim Nakhushev, Zamurat Shavaev

Karachay-Cherkessia: Shamil Totorkulov and his family Mountaineers: Evgeny Pismenny, Sergey Butov, management and staff of the Arkhyz EMERCOM Base

Adygea and the Caucasian Shore of the Black Sea: Abrau-Durso Centre for Wine Tourism; in particular, Bosir Titov, Yulia Parkhomenko and Vladimir Kostyuchenko.

This project would not have been possible without Oleg Gorchev, Sergey Vereshchagin, Nikita Shashkin, Raify Bytkova, Renata Shushaite, Elena Stolyarenko.

We would like to offer our apologies and express our sincere gratitude to those whom we may have failed to include in this list.