Postmortem Snaps to the Psychological a Nearby Wagon
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the same place in Soviet iconography We do not see the face of the man standing with her back to them as she that Joe Rosenthal’s picture of the flag- wearing the T-shirt, but his apparent gazes longingly out a window. raising on Iwo Jima has in ours. insouciance is a measure of the brutal- The pictures of life in rural areas The 77 black-and-white pictures here ity of the conflict in Chechnya. And show they have changed surprisingly are nothing like National Geographic’s the sight of John, Paul, George, and little from before the revolution. The scenic vistas; they are meant to illus- Ringo juxtaposed with these casu- eight women in “Harvest, Mariel trate the Stalinist slogan, “We were born ally disregarded dead is an example of Republic, Russia” (1999) wear what to make fairy tales come true”—with Eskenazi’s talent for composition. appear to be traditional ethnic dresses the understanding that in the primitive Soviet health care was once held and stand in a large field of grain hold- version of the story, the wolf gets to eat up as a model, but Eskenazi’s pic- ing scythes. Equally enduring after 70 Little Red Riding Hood. tures of care facilities definitively years of communism are the pagan rit- By spending as long as he did in the end that illusion. In “Abortion Clinic, uals of people close to the soil. In “Har- former Soviet territories and becoming St. Petersburg” (1996), the attractive vest Ritual, Shutilova, Russia” (1999), as familiar as he did with the people, woman on a gurney in the foreground three ancient women in babushkas sit Eskenazi has been able to produce a has a look of resignation on her face, on the ground “mourning” over a sim- book of great intimacy. His work, by while beyond her a woman lying in ilarly attired scarecrow lying “dead.” A turns, is grotesque, comic, draft horse seen in pro- surreal, lyric, or elegiac, file in the background and sometimes includes reminds us of nature’s several of these charac- puissance. And in teristics simultaneously. “Pagan Holiday, Geor- He said in a recent inter- gia” (1997), a young girl view that he believes “the with big white bows in B A image is much deeper her hair covers her face & in our brain stem than with her hand and turns language,” and many of away to avoid seeing the his pictures seem closer severed head of a cow in Postmortem Snaps to the psychological a nearby wagon. Life and death in the old Soviet Union, depth of genuine fairy- There are memora- tales than to ordinary ble pictures of military as seen in black and white. BY WILLIAM MEYERS photojournalism. personnel in training, They are the sort of of ballerinas at ease images that, once seen, backstage, of dachas t begins quietly enough. The going on outside, the feel of the image lodge in the mind. And ‘Psychiatric Hospital, Kazan’ (1992) and graduation celebra- introductory picture in Jason is not so much sensual as contempla- the impression over and tions, of movie sets and Eskenazi’s photo book is “Hotel tive; much history took place in the over again is that not just the landscape street clothes has her legs spread for movie theaters. The torsos of two Moskva, Moscow” (1998). The vicinity of the hotel, and presumably and the urban environment have been a woman in scrubs; there is no more male figures lie side-by-side in the Ilower right quarter of the image is it is that history and its aftermath damaged, but that the people, too, are in privacy there than in a nail salon. grass in “Communist Statues, Lithu- taken up with the naked back and that absorb her. need of repair. The walls of the room in “Aban- ania” (1998); they have been decapi- shoulders of a young The Moskva Hotel is Among the four pictures from doned Asylum, South Ossetia” (1997) tated, and we can see that they are woman, as well as the located within 100 yards Chechnya, “Bombed-Out Circus” and are covered with graffiti and, although hollow. In “Millennium, Red Square, Wonderland little bit of her face and A Fairy Tale of the point from which “Rooftop,” both taken in Grozny in it may be abandoned, there is a man Moscow” (2000), a young couple off head that are visible as of the Soviet Monolith Russian roads are mea- 2000, show the destruction that build- sleeping in the single iron bed, his to the right kiss as they await the she looks out a window. by Jason Eskenazi sured, so it is an appro- ings in that Muslim republic have shoes arranged neatly on the floor. future; in the background the storied Behind her is a lace de.MO, 224 pp., $32 priate place for Eskenazi suffered, but “Dead Russian Soldiers, The three little iron cribs in “Mater- spires and walls of the Kremlin are curtain suggesting Old to begin his travels. He Chechnya” (1996) deals with human nity Hospital, Kuba, Azerbaijan” lit up and look like Disneyland; in World gentility, and from the window spent much of the 1990s photograph- beings. On the right we see a close-up (1999) are empty, and the only sign the middle distance dark groups of she looks down on impressive build- ing the lands behind what had been of a T-shirt being worn by a young of life is a pigeon perched on one of millennial celebrants shift about, but ings of classic Russian style and an the Iron Curtain: Azerbaijan, Dagestan, man printed with the faces of the four them. This image testifies to Eske- it is the beer bottles and litter on the open square in which little figures Moldova, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, East Beatles, and in the background, to the nazi’s technical sophistication, espe- cobblestones close at hand that seem mill about. Germany, Georgia, Chechnya, Lithu- left, is a heroic Soviet-style statue com- cially his feeling for light, but so does to portend what is to come. Because she is so intent on what is ania, and of course, Russia proper. He memorating victory in World War II. “Psychiatric Hospital, Kazan” (1992). In a postscript, Eskenazi writes learned Russian, established friendships, In the left foreground, in some sort of Dimly lit men with shaven heads sit about the Russians that their inabil- William Meyers’s photography project, and spent time with Yevgeny Khaldei, open public space, are the bodies of in gray coveralls at long tables eating ity “to confront their history and loss NAZI Outer Boroughs: New York Beyond the great photographer of World War II E four dead men, the Russian soldiers, gruel from metal bowls, their hope- created a nostalgia for tragedy.” This Manhattan, is a forthcoming exhibit at the whose picture of Russian soldiers plant- one of them lying face down in a shal- lessness summed up in the figure of sounds typically Russian, and it is not New York Public Library. ing the red flag atop the Reichstag has low puddle of water. a woman attendant in a white smock encouraging. t JASON ESK JASON 42 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD DECEMBER 22, 2008 DECEMBER 22, 2008 THE WEEKLY STANDARD / 43.