Sergey Maximishin - Le Dernier Empire - 2007

The goal is ambitious: a collection of passionate visual commentaries that courageously narrate the ineffable—sequences from the daily life of the former USSR, a territory spanning more than eleven time zones. Since the Gorbachev era, the West has sought reassurance about the giant of Eastern Europe, shifting from sympathy and optimism to changes in attitude as varied as they are sudden. The fact remains that, despite everything, twenty years after Perestroika, what happens in the former empire of the communist tsars is still a mystery to those who live on the same side of the Iron Curtain as I do.

A true artist, Sergei Maximishin relies on the language of his images—elegant, convincing, recognizable, and always clear. He does not seek to soothe our anxieties, nor does he aim to provide answers. From Moscow to Kamchatka, from Saint Petersburg to Chechnya, Russia has many enemies: poverty, disease, greed, and ill-gotten wealth acquired scandalously. Nor does he waste time praising beloved heroes. The preferred protagonists of his wordless stories are often anonymous. Specific times, specific places. Sergei captures the essence of each and every one of his characters. With mastery, shifting narrative tones, blending drama and irony, he resorts neither to cynicism nor to needless flattery.