Communist era store windows
David Hlynsky has an amazing photo gallery of Communist Europe storefront displays and signs.
Between 1986 and 1990, I made approximately 8,000 color, Hasselblad images on the streets of Communist Europe. I purposely avoided dramatic moments and newsworthy events. In a cityscape without commercial seduction, banality seemed to signify everything. At first I was interested in simple pedestrian traffic. Later I doggedly documented store windows. These seemed to signify the real difference between East and West. Without the garish ad campaigns of the West, these streets felt more neutral... devoid of trumped up and pumped up urgency.LinkOnce upon a time in the Cold War we tempted global suicide over the content of our respective shop windows. Perhaps this is too simplistic. Dramatists called it a fight for freedom. But that seems like a line from a Disney trailer, too. As it happens, the East collapsed not because it was "evil" but because its own marketplace of ideas and things finally ran out of promise. For now at least... and for better or worse, Free Enterprise has proven itself one of the grandest freedom of all. Eastern windows are already filling with the Western simulacrum... a new utopia built out of flash and seduction. But the East Bloc windows I photographed were far from bankrupt. Yes, they were unpretentious, naive and seemed ironic. But they also contained an inventory of our most common human needs. That alone ought to have brought us together
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This is really interesting, as much so for the surroundings of the ads as the ads themselves. Retailers in the US struggle so hard to make their storefronts look their absolute best, but in these photos, there are simple hand-lettered signs propped up in dilapidated windows, meagre displays of a dozen identical fish cans variously tipped up in an attempt at tasteful arrangement, empty cornucopias.
This dichotomy reminds me of that great "Soviet Fashion Show" ad that Wendy's ran in the 1985 Super Bowl -- at the same time Mr. Hlynksky began to shoot these photos.
Beautiful.
This takes me back to an imaginary world of my childhood. At the time I thought it was true, that the Soviet Union was paradise on earth, where equality and peace and all things nice ruled. It was a beautiful dream.
I didn't grow up under communism, so I just saw what I wanted to see, which was what the respective leaders of those countries wanted me to see.
Since it dawned on me that things were less than rosy I've reevaluated my stance on communism. I still dream of equality and peace and no possessions and all that, but you shouldn't put power in the hands of a few.
It seems silly to me to give any explanation to the fall of the soviet union that doesn't take in to account western intervention. Still, I am very interested in his work.
While in Russia, I scanned a book of Soviet grocery products from the 60's -- “Kniga o Vkusnoi i Zdorovoi Pishe” (”Book about Tasty and Healthy Food/Eating”). It contains many fascinating and beautiful examples of Soviet-era product design, some visible in the windows above.
I also have many pictures of storefronts, though this is the only one I have online now.
Take a look at the pudgy boy character in this photo. He has a propeller on his back; I believe that's a stack of toys on the shelf above his hand.
I mention this because I have a Soviet-era phonograph album with this character on the cover! I digitized the records (there were three of them) but haven't taken a picture of the cover yet.
Nice gallery, Daniel! I wonder how easy it was to actually get those products.
There's a fascinating film, "Goodbye Lenin," about the final days of Communism in East Germany and the months following as people gleefully adopt Western products and styles.
In it, a loyal busy-body schoolmarm witnesses her teenage son at a protest rally. The shock leads to a heart attack, which puts her into a coma. By the time she wakes, the GDR is gone and her kids have renovated their apartment, getting rid of the dowdy old furniture, enjoying new foods, and outfitting the grandkid in Pampers.
Mom's doctor warns that the slightest shock could kill the bed-bound woman, so the kids recreate the GDR in their apartment, desperately hunting for old communist-era products and faking bland, baloney-filled news broadcasts with a camcorder and a cardboard set.
Aaaah, feels like home.
You know, in some post-communist countries, this is still quite common.
www.flickr.com/photos/cefeida/478399314
This is a photo I took of the shop window of a feather laundry in Lodz, Poland, last year. The pile of feathers and that greasy little piece of cardboard is their only advertisement.
Don't forget most of these countries were quite poor. To compare a modern US mall to an African Market is not really fair, and these countries fall some place in between. There was a simpleness that should be admired, and that is now lost to the world.
Bit disturbed as to why so many of the protestors have injuries of some description..?
Daniel: Those food illustrations are great. Thank you for posting them.