Extreme photography!

Through one of my contacts on Twitter I came across a tweet about a small group of Russian photographers who had spent five hours dodging security guards to illegally scale the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt and take some photographs.  Whilst I cannot support their actions I have to admit that the photographs they published on their blogs are pretty impressive.

All of the images are copyright Marat Dupri, Vadim Mahora and Raskalov and you can find their blogs by clicking on their names.  These guys are properly mental, often combining a love of photography and BASE jumping.  A link to a video of them in action is further down the blog!

Dupri: Close to the top of the Pyramid

Raskalov: The lights of Cairo look like an encroaching sea of fire

The photographers were taking quite a large risk whilst getting these images.  I can't imagine that many photographers would relish spending time in an Egyptian police cell or jail.

Dupri: At the top of the Pyramid (perhaps camouflage would have made the climb easier?

Away from Egypt the group have visited many cities in order to scale the highest structures to take photos and videos.  In the image below they were in Berlin, the gathering crowd thought they were about to commit suicide and started shouting at them.  When the realised they were photographers they wandered off!

Mahora: Taken from one of the tallest buildings in Berlin.

A lot of the images taken by the group were done so at great personal risk.  Much of their climbs involve working without safety equipment and in some horrible weather conditions.  I'm not saying that they deserve pity, they chose this ultimate form of Urbex, rather that the images should be respected for the effort that has gone into their creation.

Raskalov: Extreme Dangling!

Not content with just climbing up to the top of incredibly tall structures, snapping a few frames and then coming back down these guys love to BASE jump.  Videos of the group in action can be found on Youtube.  Although it's all narrated in Russian the pictures speak for themselves.  Watch it in 1080p and see if your heart lurches too when they make their jump or reach the top of the crane :)

Some of Mahora's other work is truly amazing.  Being able to shoot from angles rarely captured adds a lot to his different series.  Google translate is not perfect but is good enough to be able to navigate through Mahora's blog and learn more about what makes this photographer tick. It is clear that he has a real love of the industrial landscape and spends a great deal of his time touring the world looking for places to visit and photograph.


I'll finish this post with a few of my favourite images from his collection:

Mahora: Kemerova

Mahora: Khemerova

Mahora: Bureya Hydro Power Plant - looking like something out of a sci-fi movie