Исчезающее прошлое: фотоальбом / A Disappearing Past: Photoalbum

Магадан: Охотник; Музей истории ГУЛАГа, 2019. New Book. Переплет: Твердый
Страниц: 212, с иллюстрациями

Фотокнига «Исчезающее прошлое» издательства «Охотник» - это историко-литературный проект, повествующий о современном состоянии лагерей и предприятий треста «Дальстрой» на территории Магаданской области, точнее, о стирании с лица земли последних следов этого исторического пласта. Снимки, сделанные почти за три десятилетия в экспедициях по местам бывших рудников, приисков, кладбищ ГУЛАГа и населённых пунктов, фиксируют постепенное исчезновение материальных свидетельств обширной исправительно-трудовой системы Севвостлага, но память о событиях тех лет остаётся благодаря дошедшим до нас воспоминаниям людей, перенёсшим здесь заключение. Фрагменты их воспоминаний и составляют важную часть книги, задуманной так, чтобы фотографии сопровождались небольшими отрывками из литературных произведений авторов, отбывавших свои сроки на Колыме. Среди них представлены как широко известные писатели, так и вновь открытые имена, а сами тексты географически и тематически привязаны к местам, о которых повествуют воспоминания. Этот прием позволяет читателю познакомиться с малоизвестными произведениями о ГУЛАГе и увидеть, где конкретно происходило их действие.

Hardback. 212 pp., ills.

Pavel Zhdanov, the book's author (journalist, photographer, and publisher) conceived A Disappearing Past as a book of photographs about the state of the former mines, fields, camps, and settlements of the Dalstroy Trust. As a supplement to the pictures he quoted excerpts from the literary works by the people who served their sentences in Kolyma: Shalamov, Lesniak, Demant, Demidov, Dombrovsky, Vagner, Federolf, Vilensky, and others. Most of the texts match geographically or thematically the places described in the short stories and give the reader an idea about where the events took place. The comments explain which people are connected with this or that place and event and where or when the photographs were taken.
About a hundred pictures from dozens of expeditions conducted in different years also show that the past (the material traces of the infamous Dalstroy Trust) is vanishing. Bridges are being dismantled, burned, or swept away by floods; the inside perimeters of zones are now overgrown; alder groves are destroying walls; roofs rot and collapse; metal constructions and tools rust; clothes, shoes, and household items are decaying. In recent years, the degradation of the former places of detention has reached its last and most active stage. Soon there will be no traces of the Dalstroy Trust left, and even today most of them have no visible signs: there are only landscapes and occasional crosses set by old mine keepers and a church, to mark camp cemeteries.
A Disappearing Past is an attempt to rescue the past of the country and acquaint those who care about it with a small part of Russian literary and visual history. Perhaps the book will make one read the recollections of former prisoners and understand the conditions in which they had to live and survive.
Much has been written about Kolyma, but recently someone has quite accurately said: "Kolyma is becoming texts." This book makes the texts visible. It is for those who know a good deal about that time and for those who until now had known nothing about that incredible epoch.