Rolling Stone: Meet the Russian Kids Who Take the World’s Riskiest Photos
Famous “Viselnik” Mustang Wanted, roofing in Moscow’s financial center.
Ivan, Kirill and Vasilisa are “roofers,” a loose-knit group of insanely non-acrophobic daredevils who scam and sneak their way to the tops of Russia’s highest buildings. Once they get up there, they perform death-defying tricks — hanging by their fingertips, standing on one leg — that they capture in photos and videos that frequently go viral, garnering multiple millions of YouTube views and widespread awe and disbelief at their vertiginous Instagram photos, a heap of which could lay claim to being among the most dangerous selfies ever taken.
In Russia anyway, doing illegal things on rooftops is nothing new, but the roofers have taken it to a new extreme — not that the authorities care. Ivan explains:
“Nobody stops us. Even if they catch us they usually let us go. They don’t want to deal with the paperwork.”
(Complete aside: ‘Mustang Wanted’ would be a really cool name for one of the Jäger’s in Pacific Rim.)