Royal Festival Hall
January-March 2000
This is another world for me but the fact is that it is the same world.
Brilliant photojournalism, a telling portrayal of life in
the Eastern Bloc. Thanks.
(signed) - Lord Spencer
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This extraordinary exhibition was recommended to me by a Ukrainian and a Serb. I can understand why. For it communicates THEIR reality as only art can.
It was so refreshing to see an exhibition of such quality.
(signed ) - S. Salgado
As we listen to events in Russia through the haze of Western reporting (as a photographer I think this is a wonderful body of work with true passion, conviction, and sympathy.) It clears the fog away and brings us to think again.
I saw this in Berlin already and had to come back for more. I guess being an East German who was barely 12 when it all ended makes me try to recover lost memory. Your pictures are magical!
Very Cartier-Bresson with bite!
The former profundity of "American Beauty" has now toppled to frivolous comedy by comparison to this exhibit.
Does the miracle box hold a message for us all?
Long live communism.
This exhibition reveals some of the impossibilities of the time - this world
I lived in Moscow from 96’ to 98’ and the images portrayed are totally correct from the immense wealth to the unbelievable poverty.
I was in Berlin 89”. Events still a bit of a puzzling really...S
Beautiful, sad, painful, desperate, hopeful / hopeless...a spectrum of emotions. I can’t put into words the effect. (Romanian)
Kill Yeltzin
- Polish woman
Wonderful... but what to do now?
More please - how about Lithuania?
Intense, moving, what are we doing to our world? Thanks for bringing it home in such a brilliant way.
Apathy is the greatest luxury!!
Successful democracy is partly about controlling criminals and keeping them out of power. Communism’s legacy is the opposite.
So much for love thy neighbour!
At first I really did not want to look at these photos, I didn’t really want to know. I am not sure if it was a good idea I did.
Having looked at this crap, I now understand why Americans are not welcome in Russia. Talk about one-sided propaganda!
Go and look at your own back door before showing only dirt and poverty of Russia.
What a terrible stereotyping of Russia.
Hooray to Communism!
Next writer - Hooray to Communism?! Did we see the same thing?!
What happened to love?
Well... it seems that globalization works for a small elite in each country, and leaves the majority in BIG trouble...
Western Politicians should start learning.
How to deal with an exhibition like that while beside you there’s people drinking, spending money and having a laugh?
Appropriately horrifying...
1) With whom did you have to make alliance’s to get these
2) The human condition is always the same - different war/different country/different
sides - when do we mature beyond this point?
3) Why did you choose these pictures rather than those of optimism -- choice
is always in the hands of the photographer.
4) Your pictures provoke thought.
We will never learn... it will be worse next year. The basic nature of people is to hate.
What does it show?
Leninist/Stalinist State Capitalism didn’t work
Free market Capitalism under Yeltsin/Putin doesn’t work.
The future of Capitalism worldwide looks bleak.
Even in the wealthiest advanced Capitalist states poverty/homelessness crime
exists.
Try avoiding the homeless beggars on your way home tonight!!
Grozny is still fighting for its life as we see these pictures -- May these lands -- one day -- be granted the peace they deserve.
As someone who was living in Russia in this time of “transition” I don’t feel that this gives a deep insight at all.
Your exhibition is very simple minded, I do not like it!
You should not forget that the people who can see these pictures are not all stay at home, believe everything Brits. You should try harder to make a more balanced argument with correct up to date information if an explanation is too long, do not be selective with what you put in.
The West worked hard to destroy the old Russia/USSR then took a step back and did nothing to pick up the pieces -- no “Marshall” plan here...
Without this, it is so easy to forget.
Why is it you do not capture the diversity of the people in that geographic area---shame.
I saw the past (USSR) and it worked.
God! Whatever next?!? I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.
What price people pay for “freedom” our prayers alone are not enough to support them.
Wire Suau. Long live PTV!
This book shows that despite a work of this stature people are still unable to agree about anything!
Brings back happy and sad memories of Russia and Eastern Europe. I don’t think they are all sad, just natural--and sometimes natural seems sad.
I understand that these are not the only things that can be seen in these countries, and think that it is a shame to look on the ugly things in anything, or anyone, as people do believe in what you write and show them. So next time you go somewhere please do try not to see ugliness.
Well done, well done -- your photos are like prayers. --- What more could you wish them?
Makes you understand the drive to get from those frightful conditions and try to get to the West. A pity the stupid West didn’t step in a little sooner and help out when the Wall came down.
“Indelible”
You only show one side of history. It does not show a complete picture.
New meaning to the ‘beyondness’ of things.
I hope that the texts and the photos will be seen by a huge public, in the U.S. and other western countries, especially. It’s harder to ignore what you witness on a wall than on a TV or movie screen. My thanks to the contributors and sponsors, this exhibition is brilliant. It speaks volumes about events, which are seriously underreported. Moving!!
Simply puts to shame the concurrent Magnum exhibition in terms of both its human concern, and its critical moment.
I am a photographer and this is the best exhibition I've seen. Congratulations!
Intelligent, shocking and moving.
What wonderful work. Thank you for showing me what happens in Europe.
Beautiful, sad, painful, desperate, hopeful/hopeless - a spectrum of emotions. I can't put into words the effect.
Stunning! For once I feel grateful to live in the UK. I "looked" at this exhibition much more that I "look" at TV.
Excellent. Scary. Depressing. Beautiful Art.
Very good. The starkness is very moving.
Magnificent photography and imagery. Very moving. An enlightening exhibition, revealing, honest and raw. The slide shows were a wonderful addition.
Wonderful prints, they brought tears to my eyes.
Shattering!
Intense, moving, what are we doing to our world? Thanks for bringing it home in such a brilliant way.
Always admired your work and this is some of today's best photojournalism and certainly the best of Eastern Europe. No words are needed. Wonderful dedication. Look forward to your next projects.
Very moving and didn't intend to stay long, but couldn't tear myself away!
Brilliant stuff! I think it's very important for people to see this sort of exhibition. It's like seeing the news and how the news should be and people carry on [with] their lives here in the West, oblivious.
But this is not the only side of Russian and there is more to it. However, your photos are great!
This is stunning. The new Barbarism!
Overwhelming!
Loved the slide show. Really good idea!
Perhaps the strongest vision of Eastern Europe I've ever seen and very important work. Thanks.
Very interesting and eye-catching. I'm at college studying Art/Film/Photography and I have to say this exhibition has inspired me a lot. Some shots are disturbing, but to be honest the ones that are disturbing are always the most effective and memorable. Brilliant work. And I love the style of paper that the photographs have been printed on, excellent effort. Thank you for inspiring an 18 year-old student.
It's only one extreme of Eastern Europe!
Tremendously powerful and evocative images and I'm glad I visited Romania, Hungary, USSR before the Fall, as I have very different memories of Eastern Europe.
Anthony, I've never heard of you before, but I'll never forget
from now on. Thank you for bringing some real B&W, in a world where there's
a lot gray.
P.S. Don't let this lovely space be sacrificed for commercial pressures.
Superb! Shocking!
I couldn't believe the dates of when the pictures were taken.
What an amazing, but so very tragic study of life. Captured, and captivating.
Brilliant. I thought I'd go round for a few minutes and spent almost an hour. My girlfriend is from Moscow and I’ll bring her this weekend.
A very good exhibition portraying to us in the comfortable West what life is like in the "Soviet Union" and how sad that people still live like this in the advent of the next century.
A humbling photography catalogue. A masterpiece!
Truly wondrous!
Extraordinary, Anthony. A terrible eloquence. Photojournalism, art and analysis like I've never seen before. Thanks.
Images which are so far away and yet so terrifyingly close.
A wonderfully curated exhibition for a presentation of every side of the human condition. I'm speechless - truly!
Thank you for showing real emotions and feeling them. I felt and heard with the people.
As an Eastern European, I think it was a good idea to do this exhibition.
Horribly, depressingly gruesomely good!
A somewhat depressing but necessary documentation of the tragedy of the FSU. Having been to parts of it I can testify to the resilience and generosity of its people and if only it could be properly harnessed and utilised.
Superb show and very powerful images.
Good show, the installation is really just right!
Excellent! I was moved by this show after being in the Hayward Gallery and seeing how "Fine Art" seems to be irrelevant now.
Moving and diverse pictures that were like a transcendental dream - Very good!
Bosnia has never been a part of the Soviet Block!!
Would be good to see an exhibition that shows REAL life, a
brighter side or a little bit of everything at least. The one side - gives people
the wrong overall impression. So good luck and be objective.
(Lydia, Astrakhan, Russia)
Reminds me also of "Cathy Come Home", "The Grapes of Wrath"; what could appear if randomly placed cameras showed unbiased pictures of Russia, UK, USA, or anywhere? Nothing so emotionally impressive or depressive, true to the variety of life.
Very inspirational. You've got some balls!
Sehr wichtig und interessant.
The photographs remind me of Western Europe during the 1940s (largely); the same feel to them. Interesting and curiously exciting.
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All this information is so relevant and important. I hope that people will take time to interest themselves in such a decisive part of History. The photographs are strong, very powerful and traumatizing. That is what is needed to make people react and think.
Thanks.
One of the better exhibitions in town and it brings back the memories of being there and photographing some of the scenes myself.
Wonderful photojournalism.
An extremely moving journey. Thank you for your bravery and vision.
Very haunting and beautifully presented. The texts are a valuable addition.
The next time someone says "life is tough." I'll tell them what I have seen here today.
Captured My Heart.
Elle, Michelle, Sara, Kate and Salina
MUCH more impressive than the Barbican Magnum exhibition. In my opinion, really honest pictures. No "dynamic" prettiness.
Il momento importante per Fotografare! Grazie!!
So sad. I know so little of the culture. Photos are terrific and I learn.
The work of a photographic genius of the 21st century. Politics and epropagandai aside these images convey histories and scenes untold. Maybe someone will look at photography and the world differently now. A beautiful show.
1st comment: More style over content.
Response by next writer: Smart Arse! Why don’t you look and learn?!
Wonderful! Some quite unforgettable images.
The right stuff! - I need a drink!!
Like short-films telling me a story from next door.
Extremely powerful and thought-provoking. If I can help, contact
me.
G. Breton
There could not have been a better exhibition than this one, which shows the full brutality of the capitalist system after the communist system.
Truly moving I'll definitely come here again. I loved it. It was fantastic, a brilliant day out. I'll advise anyone to go. It's tremendous!!!
I was born on the day the Wall came down.
Catherine
Only came in by accident and was riveted and superb sweep of subject-matter. It's a shame that newspapers are no longer interested in this sort of photography. Shame on them!
What a story this exhibition tells! Gripping. Please show these in Ireland.
Remarkable images which hold the head, heart and soul in limbo.
Ripper, mate!!
Sal and Jen, Sydney, Australia
Crafted beautifully, presented well, and a subject photographed with genuine interest and sensitivity.
God! Whatever next?!? I've never seen anything like it in my life. The Grozny shot of the dead man disappeared in the snow probably takes the biscuit. It is interesting that war shots are invariably b/w and our holiday snaps invariably in colour.
Three thumbs up for the photos!!
Absolutely amazing that our Western world enjoys what we do thanks to the exploitation of these people by our "beloved" corporations. Anyone who isn't moved by this exhibition should see a doctor to make sure they are not already dead.
Best photos and cool book!
At times stark, uncompromising and humane. Suau's lens cuts through the thick fabric that Eastern Europe and the Balkans are made of. Superb stuff!
I am ashamed of the fatuous, ignorant smugness of a lot of these comments, exhibiting as they do an almost total failure to make the obvious connections between their own society's contribution (via the arms trade etc.) to the corruption of Russia's new bandits, and the suffering of the rest of Russian society. But very grateful for this elegant, stark statement of the reality that our own government has been loathe to make us aware of, in former USSR.
Fantastic!! The images and the presentation - (made up for the very bad coffee).
Interesting exhibition and commentary by the photographer but why is it called "in transition" and it's going nowhere and they need another socialist revolution. Good point made that what's happening is almost totally ignored by Western or pro-capitalist media. It's not just gangsters/illegality that's at fault, its capitalism which offers no future.
I really envy the person who gets to sit down and read this comments book in its entirety. There are many varied views, which show that despite work of this stature, people are still unable to agree about anything.
Thank you for the journey. I felt like I was there through most of it. Beautiful and painful. I feel a little more awake for it. Thank you.
I don't usually write in this sort of book and one of the most moving sets of photos I have seen in a long time - what more can I say!
I keep returning to see and read the disturbing and enlightening elements of this exhibition. Absolutely captivating. Thank you.
This is the second time I am here and still I find things I didn't see before, new feelings. So many pictures in my head, the faces! I've studied photography for 3 years and came for that reason, found a new world...
Awe inspiring! I happened to come across an advert for the exhibition in a Southampton issue of the Big Issue, and it was definitely worth coming up to London for. This October I will be moving to Berlin for my year out and your exhibition has certainly given me more inspiration for my dissertation. Thank you.
People of Eastern European countries are punished without
guilt. No one asked them 55 years ago if they wanted to live in Communism. The
British should be more assertive because of Britain had a bad role in Europe's
separation after the Second World War...
(Svetlana, Bulgaria)
Powerful and bleak. So many echoes of H. C-B/ Capa/ Salgado, does the Leica impose its own vision somehow?
Marvelous overview of events. Quite insulting to include Bosnia in the former Soviet Bloc and history should be respected, and not interpreted by personal preference.
Truth is stranger than fiction.
A very commendable project. I would be very proud if it was mine.