PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The designer’s challenge: to combine a photo album, catalogue, and academic text in a bilingual publication as four books presented together in a box. Images in Vol. 1 are from the 1960s to the final years of the USSR, 1989–91. Vol. 2 presents photographs of daily life during Perestroika and post-Soviet Russia. Vol. 3 collects pictures from the artist’s travels across the USSR. Vol. 4 is a catalogue of small images with narratives by the artist, critical reviews, and appendix. Theme and content are marked by differences in paper grade and bleed structure.
Presenting the four volumes in a box is analogous to the bare form of apartment buildings in the style of Soviet Brutalism. The box cover is the artist’s self-portrait: a gesture of turning the personal outward. Whereas the facades of Soviet concrete buildings were covered with official propaganda, the box enclosure carries the intimate image of a human face, reflecting the content’s subjective documentary style.
The edition is the first catalogue raisonné of a living photographer in Russia, a significant figure who was the first documentary street photographer of Moscow from 1960–1980. The book design balances Soviet-style modernistic design and an intuitive diary-like contemporary style.

BOOK INFORMATION

Trim Size: 8.11 x 10.23

Number of Pages: 1 vol.—192; 2 vol.—192; 3 vol.—128; 4 vol.—224

Binding Method: Section sewn binding

Paper: Amber Graphic 120 gsm, Maestro Print 80 gsm

Typefaces: Styrene B

CREDIT INFORMATION

Creative Director: Irina Chmyreva

Art Director: Anna Gvirtz

Book Designer: Anna Gvirtz

Jacket/Cover Designer: Anna Gvirtz; Anastasia Genkina

Illustrator:

Photographer: Mikhail Dashevsky

Picture Editor: Irina Chmyreva

Production Director: Agata Chachko

Production Coordinator: Mariya Tokareva

Production Artist:

Other Credits: Olga Perevalova - Copy Editing, English; Vladimir Semenkov - Proof-Press; Vladimir Sergienko - Scans and Color Editing; Alexander Malyshev - Proof Photo Printing

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