It was June 1977 when American photographer Nathan Farb first arrived in Novosibirsk, Siberia. He carried a 4-by-5-inch Polaroid camera, and an additional Polaroid 195, for his role in an upcoming Photography USA exhibition. It had been arranged by the United States Information Agency (USIA), whose remit was to promote American interests at height of the Cold War.
For Farb, this was a unique chance to see inside the Soviet Union—not Moscow, which was more than 2,000 miles away, or St. Petersberg. “Vice President Spiro Agnew and the conservative right talked about middle Americans,” he later recalled, “so I wanted to go to a ‘middle Russian' city.”
Read Full Article »
