Satellites

Satellites by Jonas Bendiksen. First edition (2006). Second impression. Medium hardback in fine condition. 

About Satellites

This culmination of a fascinating seven year photographic journey takes viewers through the countries and enclaves once held in orbit by the immense gravity of Moscow. The nucleus of the Soviet empire. Now, each region is on its own in a chaotic political environment. Sometimes also without diplomatic recognition from neighbors, much less the international community. Abkhazia, an unrecognized country on the Black Sea, was once the natural pearl of the empire. Where bellicose generals as well as productive factory managers came to relax. The spacecraft crash zones between Russia and Kazakhstan reveal a Soviet inflected version of the entrepreneurial spirit. Then, Transdniester is a breakaway region of Moldova that survives by functioning as a giant black market for illicit traffic in all manner of goods. From leftover Soviet munitions to bootlegged booze. Here, Bendiksen was once expelled on the grounds that he was a “protagonist in an international spy ring.” These 62 hauntingly beautiful and often arresting color images reveal the often grim circumstances in these half forgotten regions. Uniformly poor and polluted, as well as often politically unstable. We may not hear much about them today, but we will certainly hear more as the fall of the Iron Curtain continues to reverberate throughout the region.

Related Links

More books by Jonas Bendiksen here. More books by Aperture here.