In the Russian East #2

On my way back from China to Moscow I stopped a couple of days in Chita (Russia) and around. I dedicated the day before my flight to Moscow to continue my project " In the Russian Est",  a specular homage to "In the America West" by master of photography and portraiture Richard Avedon.

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Imperium - Chapter 1/a: "Rendering the empire's capital"

From The Guardian - May 2015:  "In 2012, as the Russian government announced the formation of a new “greater Moscow”, Marat Khusnullin, the deputy mayor, headed up an international competition that invited plans for the newly expanded city region. There is talk of a grand urban vision: new jobs, homes, infrastructure and city-wide improvements. In the meantime, Moscow is already transforming. From plans for Zaryadye Park – Moscow’s first new park in 50 years – to burgeoning creative industries, rapid gentrification and a food revolution, the fabric of the city is being reworked. Plans involve pedestrianised embankments along a transformed riverfront, high-speed water transport and brand-new cycling infrastructure. But how much has life really changed for Moscow’s residents? Has the transformation been for the benefit of everyone or just a select few? And what of the future of this new Moscow?"  

Rendering Moscow - imperium, ©Davide Monteleone, 2015

Rendering Moscow - imperium, ©Davide Monteleone, 2015



Source: http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may...

The day after

Note from "Time second-hand" by Svetlana Aleksievich" : "Mio figlio...mia madre...io...viviamo in paesi diversi, anche se si chiamano tutti Russia. Il nostro legame ha qualcosa di assurdo. Ci sentiamo tutti traditi". 

Lenin's Mausoleum, Red Square, the day after the parade. ©Davide Monteleone 2015.

Lenin's Mausoleum, Red Square, the day after the parade. ©Davide Monteleone 2015.

Parks and Parade...

I found this interesting series of article about parks in Moscow. There is an interesting sentence in the introduction that may be worth to explore with pictures: 

"Parks in Moscow reflect the influence of historic ideas on urban landscapes. There are elements of feudalism, socialism, and capitalism. There is monarchy, anarchy, religion, modernism, and post-modernism."

In the mean time,  yesterday I wanted to see it from the "citizen" perspective and not from the VIP tribune on the Red Square. I wanted to have a picture from  Sofiyaskaya nabereshnaya, the river side in front of the Kremlin, but, unfortunately, the street was closed for "security" reason. This is the best I got: 

Moscow, 2015 ©Davide Monteleone

Moscow, 2015 ©Davide Monteleone



"In the Russian East"

I started last summer this series of portrait in the Far East of Russia, and I hope to continue this summer when I will probably start adding a fix camera footage of the areas where I will shoot the portraits. 

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IMPERIUM, Atlas and Chronology.

“Russia opened its twentieth-century history with the Revolution of 1905 and is closing it with the revolution that resulted in the breakup of the USSR in 1991 […] History in this country is an active volcano, continually churning, and there is no sign of its wanting to calm down, to be dormant.”

Imperium, Ryszard Kapuscinski

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