Vitaly Zelkovskiy: Photos of tourist who never smiles go viral

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Meet Vitaly Zelkovskiy, the tourist who never smiles. He’s from Belarus but lives in Antwerp, Belgium, and travels a lot, posting pics on Facebook. His self-portraits went viral, much to his surprise.

Metro: How did you realize that you were a hit online?

Zelkovskiy: I was going by train from Minsk, and the people who were in the same car asked to take a picture with me. I realized that something was not right. When I arrived home, I saw it and the whole evening laughing.

People do not realize where you live. Some call you a Russian tourist …

I have dual citizenship. One – the Belgian, the other – Belarusian.

You travel a lot?

I work as a design engineer in the field of industrial design. I was in transit in all the cities where I took photos. I like to rest in Russian-speaking countries.

How do you feel about all the attention?

For me, this is unexpected, things get very funny. One friend from Berlin advised me to become an actor.

Why do you always have a stony face?

In general, I took photos only for myself. My relatives don’t look at these pictures. It’s something silly—smile for yourself.