Monday, March 31, 2014
faces
So…the creative side of me takes portraits of people. I photographed a whole bunch of faces in India. That was easy.
In Russia you should ask first! So here are some portraits of people in Russia.
4/1
A little bit of a false spring here in Russia. Snowed about 8 inches over the weekend. As I open my kitchen blinds here at 6am on a Tuesday morning, it is snowing again. Temps are around 30F so it melts, but not fast enough. Everyone is shoveling snow---especially older folks. I can't get over how so much of the general maintenance around apartment buildings and shops is done by people who look over 60 yrs. When the snow is gone they are sweeping up cigarette butts and dirt. I think for some of them, this is a job, but for others it is simply pride in the appearance of their city.
A bit of an observation, completely amateurish, on Russia. The 1990s were a pretty traumatic time. Americans, myself included, perceive this period through our own lens.Gorbachev to me seemed heroic;Yeltsin a bit of a loose cannon from the beginning, but the idea that these men had "freed' Russia is a bit more complicated. First, this kind of transformation had almost unimaginable economic consequences. Things began to appear in stores, but at true market prices. For people earning small paychecks, seeing things you can't afford on the shelves is no consolation.
It seems to me that the elderly took the brunt of this change. I look at their faces as I walk around the city and try to imagine what they must be thinking. What would you think if you'd put your shoulder into a lifetime of "socialism", and suddenly your leaders say----whoops, sorry, that didn't work, we're going another way. Your pension---probably worthless. Money in the bank---worthless. I watched a woman of perhaps 80 crossing a street the other morning---a huge black Audi SUV screeched to a stop in front of her---and laid on the horn for the whole time she crossed. Driver, a guy in his 30s, suit, cell phone, well dressed woman passenger. Old lady did as is common here; just kept going, no reaction. Could she have imagined that her country would spawn this noveau riche clown---with a GERMAN luxury car----and that it would really be HIS country, and not hers near the end of her life?
Fascinating and more than a little tragic.
Not trying to pick on any system here, but I see old people going through the trash sometimes---perhaps for recyclable items----but often I think maybe because they are hungry. By the way, there is no consumer recycling in Saratov. Trash pick-up is efficient and modern, but there is an enormous opportunity for someone to develop recycling logistics.
Anyway, Russians look back on the 90s with a bit of horror. Unsettling. Economic upheaval. People went without being paid for months and even years. Food came from gardens. People didn't ride the bus because there was no cash flow to pay the small fee. Someone in the office shared that she knew someone who would ride the bus anyway. Just shook her head when the fee collector came by. If they won't pay me---I won't pay you. Another said when she came to Saratov for college, her mother packed basic foodstuffs----rice, etc, in her suitcase. Crazy, but fascinating.
Apparently these times were a bit lawless as well. I've heard anecdotally that an entire generation of men were sacrificed to criminal elements. Mafia. There is a bar here that I had a drink at once----Bar Kansas. When I tell most Russians this they look at me in horror. Apparently in the 90s, a whole bunch of guys used to get shot in this place. You see vestiges of this in almost any bar/club business in Saratov. A big guy gets out of a chair--advances upon you a bit menacingly---motions for you to remove your coat----pats you down----wands you with a metal detector. I played pool again on Sunday with Stepan----this is a really nice place. Really nice, pleasant clientel, nice staff, beautiful old pool tables. There is a guy at the door in this place. Treats me like I'm a gangster every time. seems unnecessary, but I didn't live through this spasm of violence that these folks did.
There was an absence of order here during this decade. Economic order and safety did not really exist. This could be one of the reasons that the current political situation exists now. There is order. People seem to get paid. Saratov seems very safe to me. It is a first world city in a first world country.
You might elect someone continually where you are if you had experienced the flip side of this equation. When the pundits say that Russia values security over all else, you begin to understand why.
All for now. I travel to St. Petersburg on Friday to meet with Janet and her friend, Laura---then to Kazan, back to Saratov----then the girls go to Moscow, then home. I'll be here till end of May.
A bit of an observation, completely amateurish, on Russia. The 1990s were a pretty traumatic time. Americans, myself included, perceive this period through our own lens.Gorbachev to me seemed heroic;Yeltsin a bit of a loose cannon from the beginning, but the idea that these men had "freed' Russia is a bit more complicated. First, this kind of transformation had almost unimaginable economic consequences. Things began to appear in stores, but at true market prices. For people earning small paychecks, seeing things you can't afford on the shelves is no consolation.
It seems to me that the elderly took the brunt of this change. I look at their faces as I walk around the city and try to imagine what they must be thinking. What would you think if you'd put your shoulder into a lifetime of "socialism", and suddenly your leaders say----whoops, sorry, that didn't work, we're going another way. Your pension---probably worthless. Money in the bank---worthless. I watched a woman of perhaps 80 crossing a street the other morning---a huge black Audi SUV screeched to a stop in front of her---and laid on the horn for the whole time she crossed. Driver, a guy in his 30s, suit, cell phone, well dressed woman passenger. Old lady did as is common here; just kept going, no reaction. Could she have imagined that her country would spawn this noveau riche clown---with a GERMAN luxury car----and that it would really be HIS country, and not hers near the end of her life?
Fascinating and more than a little tragic.
Not trying to pick on any system here, but I see old people going through the trash sometimes---perhaps for recyclable items----but often I think maybe because they are hungry. By the way, there is no consumer recycling in Saratov. Trash pick-up is efficient and modern, but there is an enormous opportunity for someone to develop recycling logistics.
Anyway, Russians look back on the 90s with a bit of horror. Unsettling. Economic upheaval. People went without being paid for months and even years. Food came from gardens. People didn't ride the bus because there was no cash flow to pay the small fee. Someone in the office shared that she knew someone who would ride the bus anyway. Just shook her head when the fee collector came by. If they won't pay me---I won't pay you. Another said when she came to Saratov for college, her mother packed basic foodstuffs----rice, etc, in her suitcase. Crazy, but fascinating.
Apparently these times were a bit lawless as well. I've heard anecdotally that an entire generation of men were sacrificed to criminal elements. Mafia. There is a bar here that I had a drink at once----Bar Kansas. When I tell most Russians this they look at me in horror. Apparently in the 90s, a whole bunch of guys used to get shot in this place. You see vestiges of this in almost any bar/club business in Saratov. A big guy gets out of a chair--advances upon you a bit menacingly---motions for you to remove your coat----pats you down----wands you with a metal detector. I played pool again on Sunday with Stepan----this is a really nice place. Really nice, pleasant clientel, nice staff, beautiful old pool tables. There is a guy at the door in this place. Treats me like I'm a gangster every time. seems unnecessary, but I didn't live through this spasm of violence that these folks did.
There was an absence of order here during this decade. Economic order and safety did not really exist. This could be one of the reasons that the current political situation exists now. There is order. People seem to get paid. Saratov seems very safe to me. It is a first world city in a first world country.
You might elect someone continually where you are if you had experienced the flip side of this equation. When the pundits say that Russia values security over all else, you begin to understand why.
All for now. I travel to St. Petersburg on Friday to meet with Janet and her friend, Laura---then to Kazan, back to Saratov----then the girls go to Moscow, then home. I'll be here till end of May.
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