Karat

Ten-year-old Lena leans against the rough brick wall, shoulders slouched, her hand daintily holding a cigarette, white smoke lazily escaping her cherry lips.

She lives in St. Petersburg, a city that has remade itself after years of decline and turmoil. But today, behind the city's pretty façade of new buildings, there is a hidden world that harbors St. Petersburg's lost children.

In "Karat," Wolfgang Müller reveals the tragic lives of children who live in the barren roofs and attics of old buildings above the city.

They are often orphans who have run away from abusive orphanages or children escaping unhealthy and apathetic homes.

Through his photographs, Müller captures the immaturity and lost innocence of St. Petersburg's street children, depicting the casual acceptance of a life ruled by basic survival and the daily fix. His unique talent is his ability to juxtapose the innocent with the dangerous — capturing the awful paradox of children living as adults.