Foto's: de prachtige metrostations van Moskou zijn 'paleizen voor de gewone mensen'

Cultuur
woensdag, 28 oktober 2015 om 10:16
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Toen Josef Stalin in de tweede helft van de jaren twintig aan de macht kwam, was er nauwelijks openbaar vervoer in het almaar uitdijende Moskou. In drie jaar tijd werd uiteindelijk een metronetwerk uit de grond gestampt. In het voorjaar van 1935 ging de eerste metro rijden langs dertien stations. Het metrosysteem was op zichzelf een vorm van communistische propaganda. Overal hingen foto's van Stalin en de stations waren prachtig verlichte zalen. Het idee was dat de mensen in de ondergrondse stations op keken tegen Stalin boven de grond. Stalin noemde het 'paleizen voor gewone mensen'. Hij wilde laten zien dat het belastinggeld goed werd besteed. In 1991 stortte de Sovjet Unie in, maar 9 miljoen Russen maken nog steeds gebruik van de 200 metrostations. Het is een van de drukste netwerken van Europa en het groeit nog steeds. In 2020 moet het metronetwerk van Moskou het grootste ter wereld zijn. is de eerste die foto's heeft gemaakt van de metrostations zonder dat er mensen zijn. Hij was een jaar bezig om toestemming te krijgen om 's ochtends vroeg vóór de eerste metro vertrekt te mogen fotograferen. Hieronder een aantal van zijn mooiste foto's:

currently there are around 200 metro stations spread out across 12 lines in moscow burdeny picked 30 that he felt were the most visually interesting or historically significant
eventually he worked out an arrangement where he could rent out stations by the hour over the course of two weeks
someone was always watching burdeny no matter where he went underground but as far as he knows hes the only photographer to ever shoot the stations while they were empty
every night each of the stations are cleaned in depth there were usually maintenance crews waiting beyond the view of the frame while burdeny was shooting
during the time of the soviet union many citizens struggled in communal housing properties above ground still the underground system was spared no expense
they were designed as communist propaganda the brightly lit environments causing people to look up at the light of the station metaphorically looking up to stalin above ground stalin had constructed an idea of himself as god
stalin also wanted to remind the citizens that their tax money was being well spent
more than 75000 workers contributed to the stations design and construction their efforts would pay off as the metros beauty was instantly noticed by citizens and visitors alike
the styles of the architecture of the stations ranged from rococo to art deco to constructivism they are also reminiscent design wise of palaces from the pre soviet russian empire
although it might have been hard to imagine the second round of stations were even more sophisticated and detailed than the first new materials were introduced including gold mosaics and 14 different varieties of marble
certain stations have weathered time better than others the main ones however are given a lot of careful attention and respect by the population

Bron(nen): Business Insider