|
The type of subject I am most fond of shooting is that which presents a multilayered pattern of use and history. So, for example, I photographed a former synagogue that had been turned into a radio station, a monastery used as a gulag, a nobleman's mansion transformed into a children's theater, etc. For me these kinds of subjects present a cross section through time: they address Russia's complex past, as well as the larger compacting and collapsing processes of contemporary history.
-Andrew Moore
|
With an extraordinary eye for the juxtaposition of past and present, the sublime and mundane,
and the sacred and profane, photographer Andrew Moore focuses his lens on the contradictions
that embody modern Russia.
In the case of Russia, Moore says: “I was quite familiar with both its history and culture before
I arrived the first time, but I hadn’t yet linked that knowledge to the more intimate understanding
one gathers on the ground and in person. There is an amazing story of the poet Anna
Akhmatova, standing in a line of women outside a prison during the Stalinist purges, all of them
waiting in the remote hope of possibly seeing their jailed husbands. The women beside her
knew she was a famous poet, and one whispered to her: “Remember this for us.” Perhaps more
than any other country, Russia is a place where history weighs mightily, and every individual’s
memory is laden, if not burdened, with the past. So I would say that despite what I knew of
country’s history before I went, the most crucial and enlightening ideas were gathered from the
stories people told me.
Andrew Moore is best known for his large color prints dealing with architectural and urban
scenes. He has had eight solo shows in New York as well as numerous exhibitions in the US and
internationally. His photographs are represented in the collections of the Whitney Museum of
American Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Library of Congress, the Israel Museum, the
High Museum, the Eastman House and the Canadian Centre for Architecture and many other
institutions.
The book Russia by Andrew Moore is available
|
