2024-05-08T09:19:08-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150062975/the-tower-block-as-a-recurring-theme-in-post-soviet-photography Alexander Walter 2018-05-04T15:24:00-04:00 >2018-05-04T15:24:30-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/2s/2s9rr4r2usvrzwkb.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>In some places, the tower block has never faded from view. The history of mass housing in eastern Europe is complex and uncomfortable. Yet what&rsquo;s striking is how prominently the tower block features in the work of contemporary photographers from that territory. These artists have every reason to turn their backs on such buildings. They&rsquo;re ugly and&nbsp;overbearing, not to say reminiscent of an authoritarian past. But the mass housing block is a recurring presence in their work.</p></em><br /><br /><p>Writer and critic Ekow Eshun provides a beautiful overview of the <em>tower block</em> as a recurring architectural, social, and aesthetic theme in the works of post-Soviet-era photographers in Russia, Serbia, the Baltic states, and throughout Eastern Europe.&nbsp;</p><p>"However ugly and monolithic such buildings were after all, they provided homes for people and are worth time and scrutiny as sites of possibility and connection," Ekow writes. "They were places where people gathered to sleep and eat, to argue and to raise families. And they continue to be so. Perhaps this is a modest artistic aim. But it&rsquo;s also a worthwhile one."</p>