Kids on a hot tin roof
In her red polka-dot dress with its neat trims and bows, Lena doesn't look much older than ten years.
Yet, with her head tilted back and her sharp eyes like slits, she sizes the camera up as if she's not only seen it all but has come back to take a crack at the photographer.
Certainly, with her cigarette cupped in chubby, expert fingers, she appears self-assured, though, of course, she also looks understandably wary.
After all, as one of the many hundreds of children living rough on the roofs and attics of the buildings behind Nevskij Prospekt - the city centre's main shopping street - high above St Petersburg, she can't be expected to trust the many male adult strangers who inevitably come her way.
In the run-up to the Russian city's 300th anniversary last year, German photographer Wolfgang Müller spent some time getting to know the children and teenagers he portrays in their makeshift homes.
They are shown sleeping, taking drugs (Karat is a brand of shoe polish containing solvents), cooking, fooling around and, in some cases, looking after their own children in the most appalling conditions.
M¸ller states that he wanted to portray these youngsters with a degree of dignity, so colours are soft and lush, and his subjects look, on the whole, confident in their surroundings.
Yet, as one teenage boy looks moodily at the camera over his bomber-jacketed shoulder, you do, just occasionally, think of the pictures in i-D.
Until May 29, Tom Blau Gallery, 21 Queen Street SE1, Tue to Fri 10am to 6pm, Sat midday to 5pm, free. Tel: 020 7278 5121. Tube: London Bridge/Tower Hill
