Architecture of Time
A documentary photo essay on public holidays that turn national history into an immersive setting.
On public holidays such as Victory Day and Russia Day, temporary environments invite visitors to enter a version of the past. Actors wear Second World War uniforms; old tanks are brought in for children to climb. History becomes something to walk through and touch.
In Architecture of Time, I photograph these staged settings and the people who use them. The series looks at the encounter between an organized public ritual and ordinary behavior: how children approach military machinery, how visitors move among performers, and how a historical narrative becomes part of a day out. Across these scenes, the story of Soviet victory is repeatedly brought into the present and linked to an image of contemporary Russia.
This ongoing documentary photo essay draws on social anthropology and sociology to ask how collective memory is built as an environment. It considers who selects the past on display, how people participate in it, and what remains outside the scene.
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