New Post Cards Reopen Old Cities

Post cards symbolize the slow and stable life of the end of the 19th century. When we look at the mat, faded post cards of the bygone years, we can have a clear picture of that epoch with its slightly naive but healthy aesthetic and philosophic perception of life.

Sociologists and psychologists say, the more post cards people send to each other, the more stable life of the society is. If people send cards often, it means that life in the country is good. The art of post cards has been slowly declining within the past years. But recently it unexpectedly revived in a new light. Post cards are turning into works of art of artists, designers or creators.

No matter whether post card designers want it or not, cards usually convey details of the epoch when it was created; in many years, it tells people about tastes, passions, aesthetic, technologies and state systems existing at that period when it appeared.

An exhibition of post cards called “New Cards” was organized by photographer Andrey Kuzin in Moscow, and the exhibition became quite an event in the life of contemporary post cards.

The first Russian cards appeared in 1894-1895, they depicted sights of cities and different places; such post cards were especially typical of the end of the 19th century. When photographer Andrey Kuzin, 24, takes pictures of cities with his digital camera, he focuses mostly on interesting places. He suggests that people should look at habitual places in a new light, without associating cities with the places which are already familiar to us.

Over 40 new cards made within the past five years are the result of Kuzin’s walks about Morocco, St.Petersburg and certainly about Moscow, the city immensely loved by the photographer. Andrey Kuzin’s cards show us Moscow at night, in motion, in the bright neon lights, mirrored in the pools. The cards invite us to take a walk about the Moscow bridges, have a look at the Moskva River and glance at a dark blue clouded sky at night. Cards made in Morocco are a bright spot of the exposition.

Andrey Kuzin explained himself that main objective of the exposition is to demonstrate new architecture of cities to the people. At the same time, the young photographer says that he takes pictures of the city streets at night simply because that they come out very contrasting when taken at night.

Yelena Kiseleva PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: https://www.pravda.ru/culture/7441-otkrytka/