Belarus, a post-Soviet country “squeezed between Europe and Russia”. The most common association is probably Chernobyl and current political regime referred to as “the last dictatorship in Europe”. No surprise that those few photographers who get to that part of Europe focus on one of those issues. Bill Crandall did something very different. He came to Belarus to document everyday life and he spent one decade visiting the country: observing, learning, reflecting. [S]ome images are just surreal, others are very intimate, many are captivating but all of them create beautiful and intriguing narratives […].
My book The Waiting Room - Photographs from Belarus is now available in a first edition of 500. The introduction, in English and Russian, is by Belarusian author Victor Martinovich. The book is a ten-year body of work finally achieving final form.
Check here for more info about the book and to order. I can mail orders anywhere in the US or the world. There’s a downloadable e-book version as well, with either an English or Russian introduction. It should work well on pretty much any computer or device. The e-book is free for the month of January as a promotion.
If you’re in DC, I’ll be having a launch party soon, so stay tuned!
Whenever I travel I am so dependent on other people, without whom I couldn’t get anything done. Huge thanks to everyone who helped me so much over the years!
The press/VIP night for FotoDC’s big FLASH exhibit is tomorrow (Thurs) night, with the public opening Friday night in Crystal City, VA. Click here for more info.
There was a panel of five jurors from the top tier of the DC photo world - a short selection from my Belarus series (including the above pic from Minsk in 2009) was chosen by Philip Brookman, chief curator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Which is obviously exciting, though my one complaint was that each person submitting work only had eight minutes with their chosen curator, about enough time for how-you-doing and a quick slideshow before an official hoverer moved in to break things up. Brookman is certainly someone I would’ve liked to get into more of a conversation with.
But I nitpick. It’s great how FotoweekDC has become the year-round FotoDC, pulling together all kinds of cool events like this. Kudos to founder Theo Adamstein and crew, working hard to put the DC photo scene on the international map.
I’m excited that my Belarus multimedia piece (along with a short text I wrote) was just published on Transitions Online, a web magazine that covers political, social, cultural, and economic issues in the former communist countries of Europe and Central Asia.
