A seriously heavy atmosphere of doom and hopelessness dwells inside the catacombs of former communist mines .... Evgeny Chibilev recently sent us a series of photographs that he took in the "slyudo" mines (muscovite: potassium mica), dated from the times of Stalin's Gulags and abandoned since 1961. (it's located near the city of Kyshtym, Chelyabinsk region)

Today it's a paradise for bats and weird lichen and fungus growth, with precarious seismic and flood situation - but Evgeny and his friends found a way inside and (after taking haunting pictures) started making a "Fire Show", turning the thick darkness into fiery magical "light painting". (See our article about the best of "light art")