Any updates on Jason Eskenazi's Black Garden?

[lauffray]

I'm a big fan of Eskenazi's work, though I'm not fortunate enough to own Wonderland, I learned about his Black Garden project a while back and have been looking forward to the book. Anyone know what happened to that? There's nothing on his website except a link to a vimeo page, and the kickstarter hasn't had any updates since 2011

 

[pentaxuser]

Can I ask what is "Wonderland and the Black Garden project? Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[ooze]

He's still working on it afaik. Currently he's based in Istanbul. I've met and chatted with him here a few times, and if I remember correctly he said he's planning to travel to some neighbouring countries to continue photographing for Black Garden.

 

[lauffray]

Can I ask what is "Wonderland and the Black Garden project?

Wonderland is a rather legendary book project travelling across the former Soviet Union after the fall of the Berlin wall, the photographs are excellent although the book now fetches 600$ on ebay. Black Garden is the new project he announced on his webpage.
Links:
Wonderland
Black Garden

He's still working on it afaik. Currently he's based in Istanbul. I've met and chatted with him here a few times, and if I remember correctly he said he's planning to travel to some neighbouring countries to continue photographing for Black Garden.

Great, thanks ! That's good to know

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks for the explanation. I'll pass on $600

pentaxuser

 

[lauffray]

If anyone is interested, it's now ready for pre-order on the publisher site. I encourage everyone to check it out, he's a good photographer

 

[jtk]

from Wonderland:

"The USSR was not only a vast closed territory with extensive geographical boundaries that stretched from Europe through Asia but is also a huge well of memory or dis-memory - a utopian vision that became a dystopian nightmare lasting nearly a century. The story of Communism is the story of the 20th century. For many, the Soviet Union existed, like their childhood, as a fairy tale where many of the realities of life were hidden from plain view. When the Berlin Wall finally fell so too did the illusion of that utopia. But time changes memory. The ex-Soviets confused the memory of their innocent youth for their nation's utopian vision, unable to confront its history and thus creating nostalgia for tragedy. This book tries to seek and portray the socialist dream, the nightmare of the USSR beneath the veneer and the reality that emerged after the fall. And like all fairy tales try to teach us: the hard lessons of self-reliance."