Soviet Bus Stops

Who in their right mind would spend years traveling around Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Estonia and the various other former Soviet Socialist Republics of the old USSR, taking photograps of bus stops? Christopher Herwig, that's who, and here are the fruits of his labours. The result is one of the most endearing and eye-opening photo projects you'll ever see.Designing a bus stop really is architecture on its humblest scale. And yet, and yet.. time and again, Herwig's photos reveal the envelope-pushing, genre-defying imagination and brio that Soviet architects devoted to this most mundane of tasks in the 1970s and 1980s. The range and diversity of design approaches here is little short of breathtaking, from the modernist to the brutalist to the vernacular to the stark staring bonkers. It's clear that, for architects at least, freedom of expression was alive and well and flourishing in the USSR during the grim years of Leonid Brezhnev.Equally bizarre is the location of these extraordinary creations, many of which appear to have been plonked down onto the most desolate steppes by passing flying saucers, and then abandoned to the elements. The loneliness and dilapidation of these structures only adds to the note of melancholy that pervades this book, undercutting the initial laugh-out-loud impact some of the photos.If you loved Frederic Chaubin's magisterial CCCP: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed, this would be a wonderful companion piece which you will unreservedly enjoy. Otherwise, it would make a mavellous Christmas present for any leftward-leaning, design-savvy hipster with a nose for the bizarre. Warmly recommended.

Fantastic

Beautiful collection of stark striking variation. Interesting subtexts and feels like an adventure. Great value for money in terms of artwork per pound £

Very good for anyone who knew the old Soviet Union and travelled extensively through it. A very good sampling of that specific architecture which the Soviet regime developed, strongly connected to its ideology and to its need to appear modernistic. The book also shows abundantly the attempts at local and "ethnic" designs, which were so typical of Soviet architecture in the provinces, desperate as they were to maintain the illusion of a multicultural society and of the дружба народов, the "friendship between the peoples". The book makes no attempt at hiding the sorry state all these little street monuments are in, a reminder of the disastrous quality of construction in the Soviet Union.

Bus stops do not sound to be the most exciting buildings to most who have grown up in Western Europe, since most of them have been constructed to a series of uniform designs, different from country to country perhaps but otherwise with little individual flavour or originality. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, seems to have allowed much more creativity in the design of small structures and bus stops appear to have been the projects that young, budding designers / artists took on as a means of expressing themselves and in order to experiment.The author - Canadian born photographer Christopher Herwig - has spent lots of time photographing the former Soviet Union and this book is a selection of some of the more original bus stops of the former Soviet Republics. I use the term purposefully, as the one Republic with no bus stop pictures in the book is Russia itself.Still, you get everything from the Baltics to Kazakhstan and the variety and originality is staggering. After a short foreword, an introduction by the author describing the project, and an introduction to the subject of bus stops in the Soviet Union, the rest of the book contains only pictures. Four are of typical bus models, the others of bus stops, organized by country (former Republic).The subject may not be grandiose, it may even appear thoroughly mundane. Still it is a book well worth looking through, as it captures an attempt at blending an everyday object into the local environment, shows how originality could be expressed even in very authoritarian regimes and as the pictures are really very good overall. So if you are interested either in design, or curious about life in the Soviet Union, the book is definitely worthwhile.

Every single person I showed this book to was like, "Why would I want to read that? a book on bus stops? really?" But then they all spent at least 30 minutes flipping through the pages going, "What? seriously? look at this, it's nuts!"Worthwhile coffee table book. I bought three copies as Christmas gifts. After the initial bafflement, all of the recipients enjoyed their books and spent quite a while looking through it.You definitely get a sense of wonder and amazement while looking at these bus stops. Thanks to the photographer for cataloging these unusual architectural features for us.

You need to be interested in the topic, but if you are it's a book rich of details

Beautifully produced little book and very well priced. The photos are timeless. If you are looking for a low price, novelty conversation piece as a present for a friend or relative, you should look no further than this. And there's a second volume in the same format.