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In the summer of 1989, just several months
before the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union, I was part
of a six-person crew which traveled more than eight thousand
miles throughout the Siberian SSR's.
It was our wish to do several stories. Our primary task was to document the life of Silvio "Scotty" Sclocchini of Philadelphia, PA, the only legal American resident of Siberia and his Russian wife, Leda. Additionally, we were to shoot interviews to determine the attitudes of the people who lived several thousand miles from the seat of Soviet power in Moscow. Along the way, we were given the opportunity to be the first western photojournalists to visit the former Stalinist Gulags in the mountains a couple of hundred miles northwest of Magadan.
This was one of the most sobering and
incredible experiences of my life.
For exactly one month we travelled to cities and regions which had been forbidden to even Soviet citizens, let alone photojournalists from the USA. The people were open, friendly and warm. We were granted on-the-spot interviews with officials who, up until then, would never have spoken to an outsider. We were allowed the use of transport aircraft, helicopters and assorted vehicles during the course of our travels.
Wherever we went, we drew crowds. In closed
cities like Magadan where the Soviets kept highly secret coastal
radar and defense installations, the locals had never set eyes on
an American, but that didn't stop them from telling our camera
how they felt about the new (then) policies of Peristroika and
Glastnost.
Here is a collection of thirty-six of a few
of my most memorable photographs. I hope you enjoy viewing them a
fraction as much as I enjoyed living the experience.
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