Kiev from The Sochi Project

Kiev, the latest in the sketchbook series from the on-going Sochi Project by Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen, features images taken by Hornstra with a 1970s Kiev camera. A gift from a friend in Sochi, the Ukrainian built medium-format SLRs were known for being almost exact clones of pricier models, but also for Soviet-era manufacturing defects. My dad actually had one of these cameras. As a child, I was intrigued by its size and Soviet-sounding name. For Hornstra, the appeal lay in photographing Sochi with a camera that had seen it in the 1970s and how such a camera can change the act of seeing.

Kiev from The Sochi Project

The cardstock book is contained within a cardboard wrapper printed with images taken by the Kiev on the outside. Inside, the gray paper contains a parts diagram of the camera. On the thick pages of the book are well-printed beautiful images from Sochi -- the waterfront promenade, beach goers, small scenes of the tourist area. They have a special quality to them, a timelessness from the act of shooting contemporary scenes with older equipment. Despite the obvious summer heat, the images feel cool with overcast skies and crisp bright whites and communicate a very solid sense of place. But as one flips through the book, it's hard not to be distracted by something strange happening at the sides of the images -- the very edge of the next photograph creeps into the frame. After a few days of shooting, Hornstra discovered that the camera had a defect in the film transport mechanism.

Kiev from The Sochi Project

For their multi-year slow journalism project documenting the transformations of Sochi Russia to an Olympic venue for the 2014 games, Hornstra has been shooting on film. In Kiev's thoughtful essay, he digs in to the well-worn digital vs analog debate, defending his preference for analog, but also admitting to doubts. "Every trip we make for The Sochi Project costs us the equivalent of a digital SLR in material and development expenses," the essay states. That's not an expense that can be taken lightly, particularly for a project that is largely reliant on donations. These are not the photographs that Hornstra expected, but this is the second book published by The Sochi Project that gets mileage from the malfunctions or quirks of analog photographic technology -- the other being Safety First, that featured images damaged by the nearly omnipresent x-ray scanners in the Chechen capital of Grozny. Given the power of these books, I have to agree with Hornstra's decision; the success of both isn't simply a matter of turning lemons into lemonade. The physical weaknesses of analog technology make for metaphorical advantages, and The Sochi Project has managed to find poetic expressions in the chaos of life. "The power of analogue photography is the unpredictability, the imperfection, the setbacks that are initially so frustrating, but ultimately add unexpected dimension to the images."

Kiev from The Sochi Project

Kiev from The Sochi Project

It seems to follow that a photographer enamored with the object he uses in his practice would also take special care in crafting the vehicle for his art -- this book is a fine example. At first glance it seems like an accordion fold, but a few pages in it becomes apparent that it is something else. Constructed from a single sheet of cardstock, the book completely unfolds. Once unfolded, the images can be viewed like a contact sheet, the formerly anonymous bleeding edges from other photographs are matched with their original image. On the reverse, the image of pink flowers (that hides under the text pages in the book) is reproduced on a large scale, sections of which provide the cover images and peek through as you page through the book. With its playful design and engaging essay, this is a special book from The Sochi Project -- the elements work well together to create something that stands just at the edge of the project, looking outward to the challenges of art making. -- Sarah Bradley

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cover of Life Here is Serious

The Sochi Project is of a rare breed of journalism. With astounding foresight and depth of interest, photographer Rob Hornstra and writer/filmmaker Arnold van Bruggen have spent three years documenting the city and surrounding region of Sochi, Russia, the location of the 2014 Olympics. Identifying the contrasting economic nature of the region with the splendor of the Olympic games, Hornstra and van Bruggen have dedicated themselves to a 5 year documentation of the area, capturing the colossal transformation it is undergoing in preparation for the massive global event, changing the region, as Hornstra and van Bruggen say, "beyond recognition."

Hornstra and van Bruggen's venture in slow journalism has yielding numerous publications so far. Sanatorium (2009) and Empty Land, Promised Land, Forbidden Land (a Best Book of 2010), are both sold out, but copies of the 2011 publications, Sochi Singers and Safety First, are still available. Sochi Singers is a lavishly over-size paperback documenting the quirky Russian custom of live singing entertainment at dinner establishments. Interspersed with scene-setting images of Sochi's surrounding beaches and boardwalk, the photographs of the singers are at times strange and funny, their environments often looking more like community center karaoke than something for professional vocalists. Still, they stand earnestly among the speakers, cables and synthesizers, serenading an unseen crowd.

from Sochi Singers

Safety First features a series of images taken in the Chechen capital of Grozny, a part of the world now known for its long-standing conflict with Russia and horrific terrorist activities. The images in this volume are not so clearly cohesive in subject matter, but presented like segments of a contact sheet, one notices that the images are marred by strange pink waves. In an attempt to make the population feel safer, Grozny has installed metal detectors at the entrances of many buildings and public spaces, metal detectors that Hornstra's camera had to pass through on multiple occasions. As a result, a portion of the rolls of film he shot during this trip were corrupted, their surfaces bearing a physical emblem of Grozny's grasps at security. The images themselves show graveyards and a skating rink, families in rundown apartments and an aged veteran, chest covered with metals. All the while those pink lines cross the photographs, reminders of the chaos implicit in calling this city your home.

from Safety First

The latest publication, Life Here is Serious, is a slim small hardcover volume of photographs of young wrestlers in Makhachkala, a city across the Caucasus Mountains from Sochi on the Caspian Sea. The Caucasus Region has never been a stranger to conflict, but the years following the end of the Soviet Union have been marked by steady violence, which sets a timeline for this book. Images of boys in red and blue wrestling uniforms are paired with black pages with white text, the date of the featured boy's birth corresponding to the grisly event described on the adjacent page, putting what might otherwise read as a news headline in personal context. It is a simple yet effective technique, and when combined with text describing Hornstra and van Bruggen's interactions with wrestling coaches, men who were hesitant to discuss the violence of the region but opened up considerably on the topic of wrestling, the aptness of using wrestling as a lens through which to explore this area becomes very clear: "Above all, wrestling as a tactical, brutal sport rich in traditions is a metaphor for the North Caucasus itself: a hospitable but violent region."

from Life Here is Serious

Much is communicated through the faces and postures of these boys. While there is an immediate parallel between Life Here is Serious and Michal Chelbin's The Black Eye, Hornstra's straightforward photographs could not be confused with Chelbin's images. Where careful timing to photograph exhaustion and natural chiaroscuro lighting made Chelbin's youthful subjects appear almost other-worldly, Hornstra's wrestlers are fixed in the here and now. As the title states, life here is serious, and the children and young men in these photographs seem to have an understanding of life well beyond their years. Their frames at times may look fragile, but these boys address the camera with maturity and poise, a suitable toughness.

from Life Here is Serious

All of The Sochi Project books are well designed with innovative touches and each is a wonderful example of text and image co-exisiting within a book in a manner that is mutually enriching, never distracting. Allowing their readers to get to know a region through a series of digestible cultural histories, Hornstra and van Bruggen create a nuanced understanding of the region and its ethos, one that when complete will add up to more than the sum of its parts. It is a project worth following. -- Sarah Bradley

The Sochi Project is always looking for donations to support this massive documentary effort. Find more information on their website.

Find all The Sochi Project books at photo-eye here