Gelatin silver print
11" x 14" (Actual image size: 10" x 11 3/4")
 
 
Approximately four hundred men and a tiny number of women suffer capital punishment annually in the Soviet Union, a figure constant for ten years "(and, it is said, a fraction of the number of secret executions during the Brezhnev years). Executions are for aggravated murder, murder with rape, or serious economic crimes such as embezzling large sums of money from a state enterprise. This man, a convicted murderer at Yeletz Maximum Security Prison, with whom I was not allowed to speak, is awaiting the results of his automatic appeal. Yeletz, Russia. June 1991.
 
 
Shepard Sherbell