Project GRAD Houston
3000 Richmond, Suite 400
Houston, Texas 77098
832-325-0325 (main)

Ann B. Stiles, Ed. D.
Executive Director
832-325-0467
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Heidi Bradner, Maxim Arrives Home, 2001, Silver Gelatin Print, Courtesy of FotoFest and the Artist

® FotoFest This photograph is for educational purposes only and cannot be reproduced.

Maxim, 18, struggles to bring his team of exhausted reindeer into camp in the evening after traveling through a difficult storm. He will go to the army this year and this is one of his last trips on the tundra before his departure.

The Land of the Second Sun, documents the Nenets, an indigenous Siberian people whose nomadic journey is the longest in the world — each year they travel 1,400 miles. Today they face their greatest threat, the development of Russia’s largest natural gas reserves underneath their tundra migration routes. In the 21st century, Siberia will emerge into a new role as energy supplier to the West. This endangers the migration patterns of the reindeer and the Nenets' entire way of life.

Heidi Bradner, Alaska-born photographer, has documented Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Russia and the Caucasus since 1991, when she moved to Russia. She participated in the FOTOFEST2006 Biennial focusing on the Earth and Artists Responding to Violence.

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The mission of Project GRAD is to ensure a quality public education for all students in economically disadvantaged communities so that high school and college graduation rates increase.