Monday, December 17, 2012

On the Gloom Lifting
17 декабря 2012

We have endured nearly 6 weeks of over overcast, gloomy skies with snow and a good bit of rain here in Mockva. The sun peaked out twice for less than an hour each time. Sunrise is now just before 10AM.

For the past 3 days temperatures have hovered in the low teens C. This morning it was -19 degrees C (-2.2 degrees F). And just like last year, but earlier than last year, as the temperature plunged blue skies have emerged nearly without a cloud to be seen. Last night we saw the moon for the first time in a very long time. The stars were out too.

We’re headed back to the US for a while. On January 9th stopping in Vienna for a few days before heading back north to Mockva. A week in Thailand is scheduled for February. Keep on traveling…

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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

On Soviet Era World War II Posters
5 декабря 2012

Recently we went to Ismailovo Market along with two of our good friends here in Moscow. Ismailovo is a flea market where you can find old and new souvenirs and just about anything else. The market has indoor (meaning a roof overhead – no heat) and outdoor space where people sell old and new things. The adage that your treasures are someone else’s junk is in full swing here. Some tables are loaded with interesting items sometimes including fine antiques while others look like the seller just cleaned out their attic or barn and decided to sell whatever they could scrounge together to make a few extra rubles. Bartering is common and you can often get the seller to come down in price – often way down if you’re good at bargaining.


In one of the indoor areas was a series of posters that hung in the rafters depicting Soviet era themes to rally support for the troops during the Second World War. Other posters seemed like advertisements for an idealized life stressing the family and work ethic in the USSR. The posters look like reproductions of the originals but nonetheless are great pieces of art (some might say propaganda).

I was particularly impressed with the posters concerning WW2 and so I shot a series of pictures. If you’re interested I’ve put a brief slideshow of these images. The easiest way to see the show is to click on this link: http://vimeo.com/54918369

I’ve also posted the show on my site at: http://www.andrewmcdonoughphotography.com

Click on the RUSSA link and scroll down to the last entry. The filename is: soviet_posters.exe

The music is: “March of the Soviet Militia, op. 39 by Gennady Rozhdestvensky and the Stockholm Concert Band.

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