We paid the KGB to be able to go into a prison. It was a lot then. I think about £700 but well worth it. We had a bit of paper and a receipt for the bribe so we could claim it on expenses,' says photographer Barry Lewis. In 1991, he and writer Peter-Matthias Gaede arrived in Moscow on assignment for German GEO magazine. It was the last days of glasnost, a period of openness and transparency in government institutions and activities of the Soviet Union.
They planned to interview and photograph survivors of the Gulag, the system of Soviet labour camps and accompanying detention and transit camps and prisons that housed the political prisoners and criminals. Of the 18 million who were sent to the Gulag from 1930 to 1953, between 1.5 and 1.7 million people perished as a result of their detention.
Founded in Moscow in 1989, the Memorial organisation had begun building up a database of the victims and helped find them survivors.
Moscow was the start of their journey; the destination was Butugychag Corrective Labour Camp, high in the Kolyma mountains.
They discovered the camp (which closed in 1955), marked on the map as agricultural buildings, was in fact a secret uranium mine.
'The idea was we'd follow the path of the original prisoners,' says Barry. 'They were shipped into Magadan and started building a road up to the mines. There were ways up, but it was unexplored. There were some indigenous people, hunters, prospectors. In the 1930s they started building the Road of Bones. They used prisoners and a lot of them died. You couldn't bury them in the permafrost so they'd just put the road over them. We thought we'd follow this 2000km road as far as Butugychag 300km along."
Bu hikaye Amateur Photographer dergisinin February 20, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Amateur Photographer dergisinin February 20, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Canon finally opens up RF mount
SIGMA is releasing six APS-C lenses for Canon EOS RF mount, thus widening the choice of glass for Canon’s previously ‘closed’ RF system.
Tony Kemplen on the.Leidolf Lordomat
A camera made in Germany in the early 1950s and discovered at a charity shop
Stories from the heart
Kenyan fine art photographer Thandiwe Muriu has a gift that she was encouraged by her parents to explore from a young age.
Cameras big in Japan again
AFTER over a decade of bleak news about the key Japanese camera market, domestic research firm GfK Japan has reported positive growth for the first time in 13 years.
Shooting Shogun
What's it like to be the stills photographer on one of the biggest and best historical dramas on TV?
Handle with care
For his latest book, Fragile, Paul Hart has stepped away from the documentary approach of his previous projects into something more personal. Ailsa McWhinnie finds out more
Leica SL3
Leica's top-end mirrorless model gains a 60MP sensor, tilting screen, and significantly improved autofocus. Andy Westlake takes a detailed look
More DxO updates
EVER-INDUSTRIOUS French photo-editing specialist DxO has announced its latest batch of updates.
Budget Honor phone with 108MP camera
WITH the UK phone market dominated by Apple, Samsung and Google, other makers, notably from China, are jostling for a remaining slice of the pie.
Google AI editing tools free for more phones
MORE AI-based photo-editing tools will become available from 15 May, with Google announcing that its Magic Editor will be free to use on Android and iPhone handsets and many Chromebook laptops.