Hunting season: a photographer goes looking for mushrooms in the Russian forest

Russians have a passion for mushroom picking — the complicated but rewarding process of locating, gathering and consuming the fruits of the autumn forest. The mushroom season usually starts towards the end of summer and is over by mid-autumn. Last year, Moscow-based photographer Anastasia Korosteleva went out into the woods holding a camera as well as a basket, as she set out to rediscover the beauty of the Russian forest she had experienced as a child. “The picking process is very exciting,” she says. "Inside the forest mushroom-pickers prefer to keep each other at a distance, not showing others the best places. It’s a kind of sport, and a great way to hide from civilisation and feel nature around you. The forest in this region is very diverse, the trees change constantly.”