Gelatin silver print
11" x 14" (Actual image size: 9 x 11 3/4")
 
 
Surgut, Siberia. (The good side of Brezhnev's housing policy in the 1970s was that it built millions of units of sorely needed shelter. The bad side was that they were mostly poorly designed, prefabricated concrete "instant slums," built with leaky plumbing, unsafe wiring, few sidewalks or other public amenities, no shops, and, frequently, limited access to transport. These problems had to be addressed after families moved in, often years on a waiting list. In one such Moscow suburb, I heard these buildings called "sleeping wagons," presumably comparing them to the boxcars-with-benches of old Soviet second-class railway cars. Shown here is coal miners' housing in Novokuznetsk, Kuzbass region, Sibera.) April 1991.
 
Inscription: "Surgut, Siberia / (C) Sheperd Sherbell/SABA" in graphite on verso
 
 
Shepard Sherbell