Pussy Riot on my Instagram

Nadya and Masha @nadyariot and @all_mary of PUSSY RIOT the day we first met in the spring of 2014. We made this photograph and i stopped the presses on the MY RULES book and added this photo at the last possible moment, removing another image. These two are incredibly inspiring young women kicking ass for what they believe in. After many phone calls, e-mails, and connections worn out, I finally had an opportunity to get a short time with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina. It's very rare, if ever, i do so much to get a chance to work with anyone these days. But I had to do something with these two! The goal was to get one last shot for the MY RULES book. I wasn't able to get the balaclava image i was hoping for, but got a couple of good ones (probably even better since I could actually see their faces), and had a nice time talking with them about film photography, vegetarianism, and what happened to them at the Olympics. These are some bad ass women as far as i'm concerned, and i was honored to work with them, even if only for a few minutes. I gave them a copy my book "FUCK YOU TOO" as well as a few other souvenirs an old punk like me had around the apartment that i thought they might appreciate. They were gracious. We got to shoot about half a roll of film (I let my son finish the roll on our way to school the next day) and a couple of snaps with my digital point and shoot as well. This one is made on film, i posted one of the digital images a while back. The MY RULES book is the first i didn't self publish, took a bit of teeth pulling to get a new page in the book and one removed, but worked out great in the end. Really rounded out the last few pages perfectly, and let y'all know when inspired i will still make some great photos. ☮ #MashaAlyokhina #NadyaTolokonnikova #PussyRiot #BadAss #ArtCollective #activists #inspiration #punk #Russia #lifeontheline #standingUpForWhatYouBelive #justice #fightingthegovernment #correct #MyRules #GetTheNewBook #artistsforpositivesocialchange thx @andystepanian @karen2scott

A photo posted by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Dec 2, 2016 at 5:05pm PST