"Country and people." Exhibition of photojournalist Viktor Zagumennov

There are photos in the old album -
It’s scary to think how old they are! -
Each time stopped in the frame.
Black and white is very dear to me.

In each family, albums with old photographs are stored deep in the bookcase. In the bustling daily rush, we rarely find time to touch the burned out pages, look at these smiling faces of people who have left their mark on our lives and in our hearts.

But it’s worthwhile to stop briefly and start leafing through them, as memories of our family and friends, of travels and simply random moments come to life in memory….

From naive black-and-white pictures, our grandparents, dads and mothers look. We again feel very small, hear their voices, remember the smells and sounds, our first pranks and punishment for them, childhood friends and broken knees, the expectation of the holiday and the joy of the gifts received. We feel the very connection of times and generations that cannot be broken.

Photos trustingly tell about the simple life of several generations of our family, joys and victories, significant events, family holidays and trips. We watch them and we are aware of the passage of time, we are collecting an invaluable mosaic of human destinies. And now before us is not just the life of one separate family unfolding, but an entire era, a huge country opening its arms.

We see nationwide construction sites and huge factories, ships, furrowing seas, and airplanes that are not afraid of bad weather. We see courage and heroism, we feel power and strength. Sincerity and faith. Openness and honesty on the faces and in the eyes of people who simply gave themselves to their work and did not know how to live differently.

The exhibition "Country and People" (the series of exhibitions "Leafing through the Photographer’s Album"), created by a person photographing from the school bench, invites us to a small but very kind journey through the expanses of the USSR 1970-1990. Life-long journey.

The photographer offers us not just frames, but plots full of details, which, with their deliberate simplicity, are full of deep psychologism and internal dynamics. Each shot makes you consider it for a long time, listening to the feelings and thoughts that slowly open inside. A person who is in the focus of the master’s camera shows his true feelings or character traits, be it fatigue, sadness, thoughtfulness or kindness, cunning and strength.

Filled with lightness and air, reflecting the forever frozen seconds of history and bearing deep meaning, Victor Zagumenov’s photos seem to awaken the soul and stop real time, making you feel the beauty and values of every moment of our lives.

Thirty-six frames, exactly as much can be on one film, the result of the author’s enormous creative work, were selected from many thousands of frames captured during his working trips at different time periods in different regions of the vast country.

These thirty-six frames give us a unique opportunity to see the captured moments of history from the life and life of the people of the Soviet Union. A country that is no longer…