Born in Russia and based in Berlin, Nikita Teryoshin captures the weirdness in the everyday—as well as the more unusual settings. Jumping between documentary and street photography, he’s turned his lens on dairy cows in Germany, boxing grannies in Johannesburg, and feral cats in the alleys of St. Petersburg. His signature use of flash can be illuminating, turning even the most benign environments into crime scenes to be forensically picked apart. Along with his personal projects, Nikita runs pupupublishing, an independent publisher of photo books and zines, and he’s taken on assignments for the New York Times, GQ, Vice, Monocle, and Rolling Stone. As part of WeTransfer’s partnership with the World Press Photo awards, Nikita told us about his surreal experience taking photos at the 2019 International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi—one of the world’s biggest arms-trade fairs.
Stories with Nikita Teryoshin