Homo Sovieticus
By: photography [by] Carl de Keyzer ; text [by]Carl de Keyzer, Philip Vandenberghe.
Contributors: Vandenberghe, Philip.
Publisher: Focus; SDU
Published: 1989
Place of publication: Amsterdam; The Hague
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 123
Description: In 1988 and 1989 Belgian photographer Carl De Keyzer made numerous visits to the Soviet Union, photographing throughout the country. Homo Sovieticus is the result. De Keyzer does not allow himself to be enticed into casual photography. He travels in areas and finds himself in situations where any trace of change is barely noticeable. De Keyzer's subjects include urban sunbathers milking Moscow's weak summer sun for all its worth, old men intent on oceanside chess games, uniformed school children on group outings, and vacationing Russian families. De Keyzer's use of medium format (6x7), often in combination with fill flash, renders detail and tone beautifully. While his photos ask hard questions about the relationship between the Soviet government and its citizens in the years just before its demise, they also successfully portray a lighter side of a society we in the West usually perceived as rather grim and austere. In the choices he makes and in his well-considered photography, he manages to capture an atmosphere which perhaps will soon really belong to the past.
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