Nick Hannes / Red Journey

‘Emotion is essential to understanding the former Soviet Union. That is why Nick Hannes’ photos and the way they capture the absurd, the bone-chilling and the gentle contribute almost wondrously to our insight’. (Stefan Blommaert)

Nick Hannes spent a year in 2007 and 2008 travelling through the fifteen former Soviet republics in search of traces of the past and signs of social transition. Red Journey uncovers the various ways in which former Soviet countries are trying to redefine their national identity after the desintegration of the communist imperium. Hannes shows a region of contrasts covering extreme wealth amid heart-rendering poverty, unrestrained urban renewal that makes deprived neighbourhoods all the more visible, new dictators’ gilt cult images in a decor of faded glory.

Published by Lannoo Tielt

Dutch/English
144 pages
2009