Of Influence

There were two books that I remember so distinctly as a Teenage or somewhere around there. They were photo books. A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union and Annie Leibovitz’ Photographs 1970-1990. These books somehow seeded deep into my mind and now are distinct visceral artifacts of my debut of Fascination with identity, love for imagery, for portraits, for capturing life and the human world and all of feelings that come for the ride, and how it can be made so artfully.

Annie Leibovitz
Photographs 1970-1990

A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union
Rick Smolan and David Cohen

Over and over I would return to these two books on the coffee table we had, which had a carved wood almost like a low shelf base and huge piece of glass over it. The books were in the middle under the glass. At that time we still lived with our landline; I maybe had a Nokia phone. That time frame, maybe before that I started looking at these books and getting absorbed in the imagery. Coming back to them all the time. Memorizing the photos and the stories in my head. Connecting so deeply to both worlds. America and art and creative lives and this indescribable freedom and ambition and Soviet Russia and simplicity, real life, the nostalgia that I felt so deeply in my soul, my heritage.

It wasn’t until recently, as I was moving things around, that I picked up the Annie Leibovitz book, and as I flipped through, that whole body memory came back to me of how moving each image was for me, how I had studied these images and known them all so well. The composition, the color, the figures, the faces. It all sat deep inside of me. Isn’t it funny how you can spend 30+ years of life trying to understand yourself, then these small little moments can hit us so hard on the head and say - here - this is what you’ve been drawn to your whole life, remember? It’s still there. This is what made you feel - remember that feeling? And how 30+ years I’ve spent re-creating or exploring those similar feelings in my own ways. I can see clearly how influenced I really was by these two works, these two collections of perspectives on the world, on my two worlds I knew. Russia and America.

Annie Leibovitz

This book made me think about

Artful human existence. The beauty and delicateness of the moment.

This is a collection of Leibovitz’s photographs from 1970-1990. She was a photojournalist and spent time on the road with musicians, took portraits of artists, and told the stories of creatives and everyday people living in America. It was her view on life and how people can live in it genuinely, expressively and artfully.

The book belonged to my stepfather, Marty, a true creative at heart, an artist in his own way, and lover of life. I don’t know how he had gotten this book, if it was a gift, if he bought it. Not sure, but it meant that he had this connection with creative thinkers and appreciated an artful point of view. He was a psychologist and a general contractor and an inventor. I remember telling him years ago how much this book meant to me. He left it for me. His original copy lives in my home, in my collection of creative art and photo books. Marty was always encouraging of my creative side, whatever the medium was. He always encouraged me to go deeper in the artistic path. The book, and his connection to it, will stay with me forever.

The book and images pulled me in for so many reasons. I think there was something graphic about the book, the layout of the images, color, and composition of each one that I loved or came to understand deeper after seeing it so many times. I also was a young teen and so curious about intimacy, the body, these meanings of connection, and these photographs explored that. Through her images, I saw so many different sides of people, of culture. Feeling, the feelings in all the images. When I would look through these images, it felt like I was there in those moments. The concept of portraiture. The photograph really. Encapsulating a moment forever. Also, the cover then had a vellum wrapper, semi-opaque, that covered so softly the cover image of John Lennon, naked wrapped around a clothed Yoko Ono. When I would come back to this book, I didn’t really know all the people that she had photographed. I knew a few of the musicians and actors, but not all of these large cultural figures. Writers. Artists. Performers. Originals. True originals.

It was really years later, even now I look back through this book, I realize that so many of the people in this book had such a great influence on me at different periods of my life. Maybe for lots of creatives. But her subjects and collaborators during this period were in their prime. What a period to live in; to document that time of being in their prime and prime time was living in the present. In the now. Not with cell phones, not with always being connected. They were just collaborating creatively in the moment.

Here are some of the photographs.

A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union

This book made me think about

The real human experience. The ordinary and the beauty of life in its daily bustle. Soviet nostalgia.

I was born in Soviet Russia in 1987. My real Soviet lived life was not that long; we left for the US when I was six. But I think that the deepest memories and foundations formed there. It is my connection to roots, to family, to a first understanding of belonging, Russia. And then my world divided when I moved to America. I unlocked an understanding of different worlds co-existing, of whole different cultures, ways of living, ways of seeing, and wanting to belong to both and at times, but then feeling like you belonged to none - since you were in this new world that joined two. Anyway. As I grew up in Colorado and spent summers back in Russia with my family. Those summers were my connection, education and learning more about my roots. who I was and where I belonged. Growing up we’re always tackling that question, over and over. Belonging. Can I belong to different worlds at the same time? Can we really, or are forced into one, or can we just create our own? That’s what I lean towards more now. All your worlds get to become one. And you get bring them all together and celebrate and hold up all the light and dark of each.

This book was my tie to my roots. It made me feel alive and grounded and connected in a way. This book comes from a series, A Day in the Life, and many photographers and photojournalists were sent to the Soviet Union to photograph everything they could in a day, in 24 hours. It spans the whole country, which is vast. Capturing all the aspects of life they could. It tells a beautiful portrait of a country and its stories.


I think also interesting for me - is even the selection of images I chose here. They are all very female-oriented. I do have this vision of the Russian woman and mother and grandmother that is of strength and realness, rawness, courage, resiliance really. The women I have always known are never ones to back down; they are intelligent, resourceful, caring, loving, confident, put together even when they can be in their not put-together phases.

That’s all on that for now. I love these books.