War in Color

With the 70th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War (Second World War) just around the corner, I've been enjoying a lot of colorized photographs from around the web featuring the USSR at home and at the front. 

The latter was responsible for 80% of German losses. The Allies could not have opened up the second front had the USSR not taken the brunt of the German military-industrial machine. At the same time, my homeland lost over 26 million people, of which approximately 20 million were civilian. The totality of this experience has become a consolidating event of mythic proportions.

This myth (not in the sense of being untrue, but rather surpassing the possible) comprises a multitude of small bricks, as this war affected every Soviet family. Thus, I, too, was inspired to colorize some photographs of my grandparents, tinting their cheeks with subtle, but living color and bridging the gap between the past and the present.

The end of the war forced the winners to sit down and, despite loathing each other's ideology, they had to come up with mutually agreed upon rules.  This system is collapsing now, and new challenges are ahead. 

Tablecloth Road

Imagine being a warrior or even a merchant in the lands of eastern Slavs, ancient Rus. The roads away from home could prove to be dangerous: you could encounter other warriors serving a hostile prince, bands of outlaws, and all kinds of mythic creatures, good and not so much. 

Was that the wind or Nightingale the Robber--born and raised near Briansk, my father's birthplace--up in the tree where the path disappears in the brush? 

And sometimes, there would be no roads all. 

This is why, whenever one had a long journey ahead of him, my ancestors would say, "Let the road become a tablecloth," smooth and predictable. 

Nowadays, that expression has the opposite interpretation, "Good riddance!", as do many others. "Putting a spell on one's teeth," for instance--in order to cure them--was once literal. Today, it means to distract someone's attention away from the real issues at hand.

Incidentally, the way I shot this image reminds me of Takao-san forest outside of Tokyo, although it is from the prairies.