1520 - Dagmar Hochová

Dagmar Hochová’s (1926) book 1520 (1520 mm is the rail gauge in Russia) about the Russian railways came out in 1960. In this account of travelling in the Soviet Union she takes notice of a non-European dimension of life in the faces of her fellow passengers. She is not looking for a journalistic sensation or an ironic caricature; the traditional spiritual Russian character reveals itself in people’s faces. The photographer’s perspective is free from illusions; her aim is not esthetic exceptionality but truth and convincingness. Hochová’s Russia is a sad and melancholic affair. Who has had the opportunity to travel nonstop for two days and two nights by train across the Russian subcontinent will understand the wistful commonness and exalted iconography that Dagmar Hochová portrays.

The book is produced in a bilingual Czech and English edition.