Alexander Gronsky’s best photograph: invaders on the edge of snowy St Petersburg
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Version 0 of 1. I started photographing Russian military re-enactments about a year ago. This one was taken on the outskirts of St Petersburg. The group are amateurs: they do public performances as a hobby, with period weapons and clothing. They’ve been doing them for 10 years, and are beginning to get state funding, which means they can do larger events, too, with aeroplanes, explosions and tanks. Re-enactments are popular in Russia. It wasn’t raining at this one, but it was a cold, windy Sunday – and still thousands of people came out to watch, bringing their children along to what’s seen as a fun activity for all the family. They’re considered educational, too, although the battles are always presented in a glorious, patriotic way. This is a re-enactment of one of the final battles of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It took place in 1988. At this point, a group of Soviet soldiers have been ambushed and killed by Afghan rebels. One of the Afghans is taking pictures of their corpses. Theatrically, it’s not very interesting. The battle happened in the mountains of Afghanistan, so you need to use your imagination, given that this takes place by two frozen ponds. But what I found weird was how violent the crowd got: they shouted support like it was a football game, many of them demanding blood. After the Soviet troops’ eventual victory, they were all screaming: “Hooray!” Re-enactments were much more frequent before the war started in Ukraine, because a lot of people who take part in them went off to do real fighting. It’s no coincidence that militants like Igor Strelkov have a background in re-enactments. They’re like unofficial recruitment agencies. I prefer snowy, wintry images. Somehow, they are right for this subject. I have tried to shoot re-enactments in spring and summer, but the results are too much like documentary photography. I want to keep things abstract and clean. When Bruegel started the whole concept of landscapes, he was trying to depict the entire world in one picture. That’s the goal of landscape photography, too: to fit in as many things as possible. Here, you have people in conflict and people watching, with semi-built houses in the background and a man pretending to be killed in the foreground. It’s puzzling. You’re not sure what’s more important, what you should be focusing on. I leave it to the viewer to decide. CV Born: Tallinn, Estonia, 1980. Studied: Trained as a commercial photographer; joined Moscow agency Photographer.ru in 2003. Influences: Paul Graham, Stephen Shore. High point: “Winning the Foam Paul Huf award in 2010 for my work in the outskirts of Moscow.” Low point: “I’m a freelance photographer. I’m always on the verge of disaster.” Top tip: “No rules!” • Alexander Gronsky is at the Wapping Project Bankside, London SE1, until 29 May. Details: thewappingprojectbankside.com |