About the life of modern recluses of Hickey: photo project "Journey to the edge of the room" by Natalia Ershova

In large cities, it has long been possible to live without leaving home: delivery services, messengers and electronic payments can solve most everyday tasks. Natalia Ershova took pictures of people who voluntarily refuse to leave their own apartment.

Olga, 27 years old. Saint-Petersburg. A recluse for three years.

Hikikomori (or hikki, translated from Japanese — "staying in solitude") - a modern type of seclusion, in which a person prefers not to leave his home and restricts social contacts with the outside world, leaving only a narrow circle of friends and relatives.

Mikhail, 28 years old. Moscow. A recluse for ten years.

Anatoly, 39 years old. Moscow. A recluse for two years.

Natalia Yershova told: "When I was writing my diploma at the institute, I had severe headaches — it turns out that I caught a cold on the nerve on my face. While I was ill, I practically did not leave the house, I communicated only with my husband and on the Internet. Then I found out that there are people who have chosen this lifestyle voluntarily, and I even know some of them on social networks.

I realized that the Internet allows you to lead such a lifestyle and this is quite a frequent phenomenon. When I recovered and defended my diploma, I started looking for heroes and filming."

Victor, 30 years old. Moscow. A recluse for ten years.

"The heroes of my project are people who practically do not leave their homes. Many people work from home-they program, create websites, review video games or write music; someone rents an apartment, some are supported by relatives. These are very different people, but they have one thing in common: they "live" on the Internet. Some of them have a lot of friends with whom they communicate online or at home. And some are modern hermits."

Svetlana, 29 years old. Moscow. Recluse of the year.

I filmed my characters in their apartments, with their animals and favorite things. I asked each of them a question: why do you lead such a lifestyle?"

Alyona, 31 years old. Moscow. A recluse for seven years.

"These people communicate mostly with relatives; it happens that they invite friends from the network or old acquaintances from the time of the institute or school home. They are quite social, I had no difficulty in maintaining a conversation with them."

Anna and Eliza, 30 years old. Moscow. The recluse is seven years old.

They have many hobbies and interests; they like to collect things. They need the warmth and love of pets, so they usually have a lot of things and cats.

Michael, 26 years old. Moscow. A recluse for six years.

Kristina, 29 years old. Moscow. A recluse for two years.

"Now most people are somehow dependent on the Internet, and my heroes help to present an exaggerated version of this dependence. I think that with the development and spread of the Internet, this is a very relevant trend, especially in large cities, where the pace of life is too fast, there is too much stress and too many people."

Elizabeth and Pavel, 25 years old. Moscow. Recluses for a year and a half.

Evgeny, 30 years old. Moscow. A recluse for three and a half years.