Soviet Bus Stops

Description

Photographer Christopher Herwig has covered more than 30,000km by car, bike, bus and taxi in 13 former Soviet countries discovering and documenting these unexpected treasures of modern art. From the shores of the Black Sea to the endless Kazakh steppe, these bus stops show the range of public art from the Soviet era and give a rare glimpse into the creative minds of the time. The book represents the most comprehensive and diverse collection of Soviet bus stop design ever assembled from: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Abkhazia, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. With a foreword by writer, critic and television presenter Jonathan Meades.

Christopher Herwig's weirdly evocative photographs show how the loneliest corners of the former Soviet Union were enlivened by whacky bus shelters.... Most alien of all are the radiant Gaudi knock-offs in the disputed region of Abkhazia, where Soviet elites once took their beach holidays.--Roland Elliot Brown "The Spectator" Designed by individual architects, each bus stop proffers a glimpse of the artistry that still flourished in an era when uniformity was imposed and creativity was often suppressed.--Claire Voon "Hyperallergic" Over 150 photographs of architectural exuberance dotting the streets and highways of the vast country...Although many of these structures are falling into disrepair from age and neglect, that they still exist is a testament to how meaningful they must have been in an otherwise homogenous built environment. Herwig's tenacity and devotion to accomplishing a project of this scale is extraordinary.--John Foster "The Design Observer" Perhaps it's the low stakes of structures with no windows, no doors and no permanent inhabitants that allowed the designers the freedom to flex their creative muscles; the results comprise seemingly limitless variations of expressive concrete waves, colourful murals and mosaics, and bold polyhedral forms. Set against the backdrop of rural, often desert-like terrains, these diminutive structures stand out like contained explosions of creativity.--David Dick-Agnew "Azure" Why Russia has the world's most beautiful bus stops ... Architects may have felt creatively stifled in the old Soviet empire - but there was one place where their imaginations were encouraged to run riot: the bus stop.--Oliver Wainwright "The Guardian"