Photograper Tomer Ifrah arrived in Russia’s capital in the middle of winter and discovered the Moscow metro, which intrigued him because it was the only place in the city where all ages and stature of people in the same area.

Photographer Eric Michael Johnson sought to photograph a medical facility catering to the veterans and families of the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya in Russia, still receiving treatment decade after the initial conflict. After negotiating with Russia’s government to gain access, he photographed in a single day.

Photographer Colin Delfosse went to the remote Russian city of Murmansk to spend a month following naval cadets learning the traditional basics of naval navigation, with half of that time spent aboard one of the largest sail-driven ships in the world.

Their traveling name is “The Light of the Little Stars,” a circus troupe of “little people” – people affected by dwarfism. Their small stature does not affect their big star status, said photographer Tatiana Ilina, who took pictures of the performers as they traveled through Russia.

So many women have come to work in Ivanovo, Russia, that it has been dubbed the “city of brides.” For a year, student photographer Alena Zhandarova used social media to find women living in her hometown, the country’s once-textile capital.

A Pentecostal drug rehabilitation home about two hours outside of Moscow houses people ready for release from their addictions. Photographer Mae Ryan spent two days there following Irina Pavlova, a resident who had used “krokodile,” a homemade drug with effects similar to heroin.

When Nancy Borowick met 9-year-old Nadya Rodena in an orphanage in Russia last year, she was drawn to her. The American photojournalist didn't let language barriers stand in the way of getting to know the child, who had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

The now-small village of Tiksi holds many cherished memories for photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva, who recently returned to her hometown in Russia. During her trip, she documented the town through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl she met, who reminded her of herself as a child.