Rob Hornstra studied social and legal services before entering the art academy in Utrecht, the Netherlands. In 2004 he published his first book Communism and Cowgirls about the lost Russian generation after the downfall of the Soviet Union. While looking for publishers he came upon the idea of doing it himself, which subsequently became his maxim.
Arnold van Bruggen runs the documentary company Prospektor. Together with his colleague Eefje Blankevoort, he uses film, photography and text to tell stories that are otherwise overlooked by the media. In 2006 Arnold and Eefje visited Abkhazia, where the stories they discovered inspired Van Bruggen to start The Sochi Project with Hornstra.