'The Citizen'

'The Citizen' is a man who probably has 'seen it all' and survived, to

pursue a life under Capitalism, and who knows with what success? It's

a 'Street Portrait' -- one of many -- but from the more 'urbane' capital of

Ukraine -- Kyiv. Some older males males have survived and thrived, and

others -- used to cradle-to-grave security and guaranteed jobs,

paychecks and food, under Soviet Communism (which officially

disbanded Christmas Eve, 1991) -- have not do so well. Your ratings

and critiques are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly,

critically, or just wish to make an observation, please submit a helpful

and constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge

to help improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

Almost assuredly any man with gray hair who was in Ukraine (part of the Soviet Union) in 1991 when the Soviet Union simply 'fell apart', was then a 'comrade' under the Soviet system of centrally planned government,with many of the most minute economic decisions coming from above, and being a 'businessman' in many instances was a crime.

 

If I understand correctly, this man is a seller, at a Metro/underground passageway entrance . . . . quite a difference from a job he might have held under the Soviet System, which guaranteed 'from each according to his means, to each according to his needs' - which was pretty good if it worked, but the problem was it didn't seem to work very well after awhile.

 

While the Soviets were one of the world's biggest buyers of Dior and other designer gowns in Paris, the common comrades' wives did not stand much chance of seeing them; but did have jobs - every one of them who sought them -- but experience shows some didn't even show up (paying corruption to bosses), drank on the job, or loafed and goofed off, while other, more conscientious ones worked because they had character.

 

It didn't matter much -- all were 'equal'. under the Soviet System.

 

Under the Soviet system, every man (and woman) was guaranteed a job and pay -- and an equal chance to stand in celebrated lines when victuals and other centrally planned distributions ran short -- which occurred at times with astonishing frequency

 

Central planning bureaucrats had to decide usually from Moscow, how many paper clips and toilet seat covers were needed by the people of Perm and Chelyabinsk in Russia and Ternopil in Ukraine . . . as well as every other part of the sprawling empire -- a daunting task . . . whereas Capitalism would rely on 'market forces' and the lure of money offered by buyers to direct the flow of goods.

 

Now virtually everything is available for those with money to pay, but those who are drunk, lazy or simply disabled get left behind and fall between the cracks - familiar complaints to those familiar with the Capitalist system.

 

Some, who were trained under the Soviets and had expectations under Communism, did not make the transition well - they expected a decent job and all important decisions to be made for them - including the type of toilet paper in their toilet, the construction of their bathroom (they were generally the same in most Soviet-style, high-rise apartment buildings with a single faucet swinging from the bath to the sink), and so forth, and even teensy lobbies serving 10 to 20 story apartment buildings, all of which often looked alike - and would have been considered 'instant tenements' in the United States or many Western Countries and were reminders that 'everyone was similarly 'without' (except the Party bosses in many instances).

 

But Communist totalitarianism raised the Russian/Soviet people from serfdom -- which essentially was slavery -- to some of the highest educated, most cultured, and most productive people on the planet, all in a couple or three generations, so not everything was wrong with the system. The Russians/Soviets were first to orbit space, first to send a man into space and in that field played second fiddle to no one, but at great expense to the populace's general needs.

 

Problem was the Soviets literally educated their populace to the point where they would no longer stand for the State making almost all economic decisions . . . . and the Soviet Union, under pressure from the 'arms race' with the US, spent so much money and energy on arms, it simply failed to take care of peoples' basic needs and just fell apart one day -- literally -- it just disintegrated Christmas Eve 1991 -- apparently from 'neglect' and universal dissatisfaction and ungovernability -- a result of the fall and disgrace of totalitarianism on which the Soviets had relied to maintain rule.

 

The result is this man, graying beard, standing at a Metro/underground entrance toward the end of the first decade of the 21s Century, as a seller (if I understand correctly).

 

Something about his appearance (and demeanor in person) suggests he has a high education, and that 'seller' was not in his future plans when he entered the work force some time ago, and that under the Soviet System he might have had work of stature.

 

On the other hand, some young people born and educated since Communism's fall, have become very wealthy in a very short time as they have seen nothing but opportunities before them with the transition of systems.

 

And that's not the so-called super wealthy 'Oligarchs' (who now often either in exile from Russia or in prison there (for economic crimes such as 'tax evasion' --- but ordinary young 'businessmen' - not only in Ukraine but Russia, and not only gangsters (or one-time gangsters) but many people who in the US would still be in university/college or just graduated -- though certainly only a very few out of the bunch -- the 'best equipped to survive in the new system'.

 

Ukraine (like neighboring Russia where I have not visited for two years) are moving inexorably, but in fits and halts towards Capitalism and in somewhat different ways.

 

Only time will tell how different.

 

I have no horse in this race -- I'm merely an observer -- and no one would listen to me if I did .

 

John (Crosley)

 

© 2009, John Crosley, all rights reserved

What impresses me is the deal of thought you put behind every one of your subjects, a way of becoming part of their life. Each image becomes a testament, an eternal document of the beauty of being human. I am still far from your level of involvement but this is the road I would like to take.

another citizen

hi john. great composition .there is a lot of life well lived in this mans face.i am curious though..... is that his wife in the background. i wonder what her face and eyes tell?

I was a journalist - a new hire at age 22 for Associated Press, and left at age 24-11/12, then to a business magazine for four times the salary for one year, then turned down a job as an editor (not THE editor) of Business Week, to go to law school, which was training for job that involved substantial writing and serious exposure to thinking things through in depth.

 

With both such careers now long behind me (decades), and my ability to think and type at sometimes 60 words per minute, turning these essays does not involve so much skill as simply churning out thoughts, placing one though after another after they appear in my mind, not having always though them through before, but one idea logically leads to the next and so on . . . .

 

That is the way I typed the Bar Exam . . . and started 20 minutes before the next typist started - he had outlined his answer, but I started cold not knowing the 'answer' (there was none actually, it was the process of arriving at an answer and how you did it they wanted to see and test for), so I just started out with the question, wrote the question and then began to examine its elements and compare them to the facts.

 

I did that element by element not knowing where it would lead me, much as a serious scholar would who is searching for truth (but not representing a client who wants a specific result, however).

 

I passed the first time, on the world's hardest bar exam, typed.

 

I also finished LAST, polishing everything.

 

I am dogged.

 

But I have also great experience; you will find a photo from Berkeley following the Free Speech Movement --People's Park Demonstrations in my folder, so you can guesstimate my age (but I gave up photography for almost four decades, except a photo or 40 every here and again . . . . serious photos but not photography seriously as I had no clients, no one to show them to, and my spouse didn't like photography - not even mine. (Too bad, too, looking back)

 

Take that experience, couple it with a journalism background which required speed writing of stories often at 60 words per minute often all day long, and sometimes even live on the teletype (we had no teletype operator in one office I was at for a year), then follow it with the painstaking detailed examination of facts and arguments you have to present to judges who are most skeptical, and voila, you have ME.

 

A guy who can churn out such essays on demand.

 

This essay is largely speculation, as I think I made clear by the use of speculative modifiers, about 'if he has gray he probably should have been a comrade' as I cannot prove it, since we didn't speak long enough and my Russian is not good enough (Ukraine has two languages, Russian and Ukrainian, similar but also different and the two not understood universally by each citizen, and worse, the alphabet (Cyrillic) looks almost the same, the things are in Ukrainian mostly, and it's a lot different in detail than Russian Cyrillic with a lot more characters (I think).

 

(notice the words 'I think',which is my way of telling you I am not an authority . . . . or haven't got the counsel of someone authoritative this minute . . . I tell you what I know definitively and also try to tell you through modifiers what I do not know definitively . . . .so you can not make decisions on those things I present as a little more speculative or 'iffy' - though for my part I am pretty darn sure they are true, but cannot prove them.

 

So, I write with varying degrees of accuracy, with indicators throughout of my degree of confidence in the factsI present . . . if you watch when you read critically, you'll see them,so beware and don't swallow everything I write as though it's written by The Lord or that even I can swear to it.

 

Most of it, though, it clearly something I can personally swear to, and within my personal knowledge; I've lived a full life and still am living that extraordinary life, now devoted most entirely to pleasing people like you, who are my critics or my photography and my writing (and maybe some day to exhibit -- and people keep suggesting I publish . . . so I'm giving it a serious thought and copyrighting more of my words directly (though the copyright notices are contained in my portfolio comments section as well, from the start.

 

Some day, you may see my photos (or my words) in print some place.

 

That would be nothing novel to me.

 

I've had a number of front pages of San Francisco newspapers and papers countrywide though I was not shooting locally, but few know that. (and one or two was even puzzling to view, but got published because the photo illustrated a serious story.)

 

That's how journalism works when it's 'with *art*'.

 

Any old photo will do if it relates to an important story which must be printed and it's the only photo that is available. (that's how I got a few front pages)

 

A couple of others, however, I deserved, as well as my first credit,NY Times after Bobby Kennedy Assassination (street memorial in Spanish Harlem found herein - first photo I tried to sell, walked into the NY Times with raw film and sold them on a VERY important day for a very important issue and they published the photo prominently (and paid me more than newspapers pay now . . . back in the late '60s.)

 

I won't shoot for a newspaper for that reason of course.

 

And they have no budget even for purchasing photos, and if they do, it's peanuts $5 to $25. and the only photo I sold (to the Santa Cruz Sentinel), it took them over a year and ten trips to the paper to get them to pay me.

 

Fah!

 

I'd rather shoot what I choose, write what I choose, pick my forum (here and one other site) and do it for free, just to keep my skills up (and provide 'raw material' for a potential future book or series of books.

 

Before book publishing is completely outdated -- subsumed by 'readers' and the Internet.

 

My best to you Antonio, but don't give journalism a second thought and if you figure a way to make money doing this,give me a (figurative) jingle, will you?

 

I am very prolific and speedy at that.

 

I try to be super accurate and have substantial training AND high level experience.

 

But remember, journalism is a dying profession, like railroad firemen, now disappeared from the job world.

 

So, if you can think of a new direction for me, where my talents are useful, I'd love to hear from you (or anyone for that matter).

 

John (Crosley)

 

P.S. This long answer took just long enough at however many wpm for me to burn to a crip a pouch of 'no fail' wild rice, for some chicken in cream sauce (real cream is pretty cheap here) I had been boiling, as it boiled down and it was on a gas stove, so the pan appears ruined (but pans here are VERY inexpensive at the giant discount store on city's edge - 2-3 times as big as the largest Costco or Sam's Club I've seen, what Europeans know as the hypermarche (a French invention if you can believe that).

 

jc

That is definitely not his wife, I am nearly certain - they showed no 'special relationship' between the two of them that one can pick up on if a spousal relationship is involved, so although he did not say so explicitly, I can say virtually for certain she is NOT a spouse.

 

In fact, she is another seller; a woman standing beside the entryway to a walkway to an underground market, tunnel and Metro complex,selling something, almost certainly either produce or some gimcracks or another.

 

Nothing serious, as I recall or that you'd want to own, as any decent produce in Oct/Nov when this was taken then was out of season and such sellers regarding 'other merchandise' sell mostly cheap junk you'd not have.

 

Her face is turned away because she does not want to be in the photograph, but notice you cannot even tell that; she is so badly out of focus because of a relatively narrow depth of field from my 17-55, f 2.8 zoom (but I don't recall the focal length setting and cannot quickly locate the photo to look up EXIF info,sorry)

 

(They aren't paying me enough here to do that sort of thing ;~)))

 

Thanks for asking; sorry I cannot provide a better answer.

 

John (Crosley)

An impressive shot, John!

 

Best regards from NL,

 

Ruud.

It's just one 'small' shot of many taken that day, and its reception has been surprising, but the others also have been well received.

 

I guess it was a good day.

 

I'll try to have more like that day..

 

Thanks.

 

John (Crosley)

 

Very good picture and story behid it . I was about 10 years old when Soviet Union collapsed , I lived Soviet republic of Estonia this time and I remember this time very well . Thank You for sharing your great images . Aivar .

Thank you for the recognition. It must have been a big change to go from a satellite to a 'free economy' and 'freedom', especially since your country was a real country before the Soviet Union and Russian was not a native language.

 

As to the story of how a former comrade might cope, is my description true, according to your experiences, though you are from a slightly different position than this man from Ukraine (after all Brezhnev was born just a bus ride away from Kyiv in Dneprodzerzhinsk, and 'cut his political teeth' in Dnepropetrovsk, which he blessed later with a promised subway (Metro) which presently has a fabulous 'six' (count 'em) six stops, total, according to the latest reference. He paid back his obligations, but just to the letter, and no more, I think?)

 

In any case, is my essay fundamentally correct,or as a person who has experienced first hand part of this changeover, would you take your red marking pencil (as a teacher) and mark it up somewhat (or a lot)?

 

I'd interested, as I only have an outsider's view, though one who has been going back and forth since 1998 and married a native Russkij. She is the one who got brain cancer - and incredibly lived despite a sentence of 'certain death', and blamed me (still does but VERY QUIETLY for my ears only) for 'causing' her cancer, which broke up the marriage, sadly, because otherwise it was working.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

Very alive, very good composed face, nice crop. ed

Very concisely written critique.

 

Couldn't have asked for better within the word constraints, perhaps at all.

 

Thanks so much.

 

John (Crosley)