“The Sheer Expansive Access To People ” (Reflection on Russian Interpretive Photographer Sergie Maximishin ) [Brandon Russia Tour Participant? - Interpretive Photography Series #1 ]
Authenticity, access, is what here stands out
In his mass of creations – there is little doubt
Of his skill and rapprochement to people, post-fall
Of the USSR – how life’s lived, most of all.I’m surprised at his freedom to travel abroad
Given our filtered info of post-Russia’s sod;
With a curtain of iron, since Hitler’s demise,
We’ve not had that much coverage of new Russia’s rise.Through his photos of life’s gritty struggle to win,
Now the West’s petty squabbles and sanitized sin
Seem like trifles, and yet they depict road ahead,
If we don’t change direction and choose life instead.For their poverty, warfare, and dusty old roads;
And their shabby existence with holes in their clothes,
Can be seen, not too far from our centers of ease,
On the First Nations’ homelands with grime and disease.But through his present images I’ve come to see
It’s the “old world” to “new world” that most impacts me –
For First Nations’ are “old world” which we left behind,
Which we just cannot fathom – from choice to be blind.So we think we’re much better than life that was ours;
But it’s just delusion, it’s nonsense because,
Strip the “asphalt”, and “stucco”, and “lawns”, from our scenes,
All that’s left is a shantytown – not what it seems.So my thanks to you, Sergie, for photos quite clear,
Of a life we think distant, that’s actually near;
Now I understand Ukraine, and the war that’s now on –
“When there’s little to lose, it’s small loss when it’s gone”.Thanks Holy Spirit for this.
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