Street Portraits in Moscow

Young woman on the Arpatskaya. Gesturing for money for her picture.

 In March, 1990, just a few months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Louise and I toured six eastern European countries that were just beginning to emerge from the darkness of Communism. Our purpose was to gather photographs, video footage, and information so that we could tell the story of how the prayers of believing Christians in those lands had helped precipitate the fall of the Communist empire.

We spent several days in Moscow, where we toured the Kremlin, met with Christian leaders, and attended a meeting of the "Underground Church." 

One afternoon, when I had a few hours break from our schedule, I took my cameras and went for a walk along the Arpatskaya, a pedestrian avenue where artists and street vendors displayed their wares.

One of the vendors -- an artist whose prints are hanging in the background.

 I found these two young women in the Arpatskaya. They were together and obviously friends. One looked as if she had just flown in from Paris; the other had a very Slavic face and was dressed in what I suppose could be called Communist Worker Chic.

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This older lady was preaching to the crowd. I gathered that she may have been a seventh-Day Adventist. After a while, the police came by and shut her down, although not unkindly.

About the equipment: As best I remember, these photos were made with an Olympus OM2n film camera and Fujichrome 100D film. I also took a Leica M3 on this trip, but don't remember if I carried it with me that day. I used a Tokina 100-400mm f4 zoom lens extensively on this trip and probably made all but the last of these photos with it.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

If you would like to have a print of one of my photographs, check out my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  If you don't find what you want there, let me know and I'll arrange to include it in the gallery.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography    travel     Eastern Europe    street photography     street portraits    Russia     Moscow     The Arpatskaya     Fujichrome 100D film     Olympus OM2n film camera     Tokina 100-400mm f4 lens     Leica M3