A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union

Yes, I did that book…...doesn’t seem that long ago. Those were fun projects. We all flew to Moscow, stayed in the same hotel, hung out for three days and then flew off to our assignments around the USSR, then returned. There was a lot of talent on those books, David Harvey, Steve McCurry, Nachtwey, Salgado, Eli Reed, Alex Webb, Eliot Erwitt, Donna Ferrato, Greg Heisler, Sarah Leen, Diego Goldberg, JP Laffont, many, many others, some famous some just really good.

Yes Andy, some captivating photographs. I didn’t notice any pictures by Nachtwey, Webb etc. but then at one point I just stopped reading all the captions. So you went to Odessa? Must have been very exciting then. Did you contribute to any of the other Day in the Life projects? There’s a little ad for the book dated Oct. 26, 1987 in Time magazine, here.

Was there too. Took some interesting pictures which they never used in the book… They are under ‘Russia Day in the Life’ on my website.

The year before I did the one on the US. Was neat: spent 5 days x a hobo on a freight train going from Denver to Spokane. And we (the photographers, not the hobo) came home with a Mac. Got hooked on that machine ever since…

The thing with those books is that they indeed did avoid grim imagery at all costs…

Yeah those books did avoid the grim, but despite the restriction in tone and theme, I always liked that series for the basic concept behind it and the chance to see what came of the mix. I believe Howard Chapnick was behind several of those in some way. Wish something like this still existed or could be resuscitated.

Don’t resuscitate things or people Jon. What’s gone is gone. Nostalgia is biting your own tail. Make NEW things…

Quite right John. Resuscitate is the wrong word, and perhaps the theme as a whole is of its time and should be left in its tomb. But the idea of collaborative projects like this appeals to me, though I would strive for greater tolerance of broader thematic and tonal range, and I would want to come up with new ways of handling it, disseminating it, and so on. Investigating how these were put together, financed and produced might help us to derive a model, which would of course have to take into account the advantages of digital printing and distribution.

As for nostalgia, well that poses an interesting predicament for photographers doesnt it, since we naturally work by arresting moments in time and presenting what is past. Certainly my own project, Memories of Underdevelopment, is a kind of elegy for what is passing. I dont think I am afraid of getting trapped in the past though. While I still prefer film, in other ways I have entirely embraced the new digital revolution: I blog, I participate on this forum, I scan all my images and publish them on the web, I make multimedia pieces, and I skype everyone—I hardly ever use phones anymore or snail mail or any of that. Still like to read books though.

I think books are food for the soul, so if ‘new’ means giving up the visceral and meditative qualities of browsing printed photos then I don’t agree with you entirely John. But new concepts to arrest the attention of the sound bite generation, well I am all for that…

One is not nostalgic when he is looking at a bygone thing. He is reflecting on his past. History is not nostalgia. Or shouldn’t be… One is nostalgic when he wants the present to look like the past…

Yes that is a good distinction John.

i like your definition john.to me nostalgia also implies rose-tinted spectacles and sentimentality.also,what is the past,it seems to be getting closer all the time?soon we will be feeling nostalgic about events that have not even happened yet.

Good to see this unexpected discussion.

Michael, people are often nostalgic about things that haven’t happened when they daydream about their future.

Something slightly on subject: About a year ago I was in contact with a school for blind children in Kyiv, Ukraine to make some photos for a local “Day in the Life of Kyiv” project. When I was talking to the director she asked if the same photographer was coming that came for a Day in the Life of the Soviet Union project. Turns out it was Mary Ellen Mark and the director of the school remembered her well. It was a pretty big deal to the people who were photographed.

Jon, Howard Chapnick wasn’t involved except perhaps as an editor for Ric and David on one book, but not more than that. The photographers I mentioned participated in one project or another, not necessarily the USSR project. Mary Ellen was a constant fixture as well. But many of the best photographs came from local photographers (the mix was 50/50.) The projects were heavily underwriten by Kodak, and the sponsorship issue became more difficult after Kodak closed the checkbook up, and the rights to the name I believe were sold to Harpur Collins.

Jon, I guess we didn’t there, but that was a lot of fun, wasn’t it…....