Moskau I & Moskau II [album cover titles] containing 186 original color photographs showing daily life in Moscow and the Soviet Union during the era of Glasnost.

Two (2) albums of original photographic snapshots (approx. 80x120 mm each) mounted to paper backings. The binders also contain two (2) large color promotional posters and 13 pages of photocopied German newspaper reports concerning Lauer's photographic project and its public exhibitions in Germany and Russia, ca. 1989-1990. Large 4to. Very good. Photographs housed in two large ring-bound albums with top-load poly sheet protectors. [1572]

A powerful document of late 1980s daily life in the USSR under Mikhail Gorbachev, who is pictured here by Lauer -- a noted Berlin-based photojournalist -- among candid images of ordinary Russians going about their lives during a time of extraordinary change. The images vividly display vernacular architecture, public markets, weddings, school rooms, children at play, orthodox clergy, military parades, cafes, restaurants, and other scenes. Captured in 35 mm film, prior to the advent of digital photography, such photographs of Russians made by Western European visitors were rather uncommon at the time, and did not circulate widely. Lauer's snapshots testify to a historical mood of openness after four decades of the Cold War. Contemporary press coverage of the "Lebensbilder aus der UdSSR" exhibitions suggest that German audiences were intrigued by the opportunity to catch a candid glimpse of their neighbors to the East. The photographs are numbered 1-191 and ordered in sequence ; images 3, 133, 134 ,181, and 182 are missing from the binders, which are else complete and in very good condition.