What's interesting in Moscow time. Blue Lakes. Cherek-Balkarian Gorge, Kabardino-Balkaria

Talented American photographer Sally Mann was born on May 1, 1951.

Sometimes I feel like my only childhood memories are the ones I made up when looking at photographs of myself. Sally Mann

Sally Mann (Sally Mann, in some Russian-language publications she is called Sally Mann) was born on May 1, 1951 in Lexington, Virginia. She received her secondary education at the famous Putney School, known among other things for its artistic traditions and in-depth study of fine arts. It was there that the girl became addicted to photography, however, for reasons very far from her love of art. At that time, Sally developed an interest in the opposite sex, and where better to meet boys than in a dark and mysterious darkroom? By the way, among her first photographic experiences were photographs of naked classmates.


An important role in the girl’s life and in shaping her worldview was played by her father, general practitioner Robert C. Munger, who, according to his daughter, looked like the village doctor from Eugene Smith’s photo essay. It was he who helped Sally realize the truth from Gone with the Wind: “Reputation is something that people of character can live without.” He also influenced her artistic taste: “Other families had a nativity scene at Christmas, but my father put other decorations in the living room - for example, a piece of driftwood in the shape of a penis,” she recalled, “He created eccentric “masterpieces” from anything “For example, the small snake that adorned the center of the dinner table was nothing more than dog excrement.” The girl learned a lot from her father: “On the outside, Sally looks like me, but on the inside, she’s a daddy’s girl,” her mother said.

It is clear that such a parent could not be embarrassed by his daughter’s experiments with nudity; he encouraged her activities in every possible way; in particular her love for large format started with his camera with 5 by 7 inch negatives. But even this format seemed too small for her: she soon began photographing on glass plates measuring 8 by 10 inches and using the wet collodion process, invented exactly a hundred years before her birth and now almost forgotten.

In 1969, Sally received a certificate of secondary education, in 1974 she added a bachelor's degree to it, and a year later she became a master's degree fine arts majoring in Creative Writing. However, she did not become a writer; immediately after graduating from college, she got a job as a photographer at Washington and Lee University.

Until the early 1990s, Sally Mann's career did not proceed very quickly. In 1977, her first solo exhibition took place at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. In 1984, the photo album “Second Sight” was published. Both of these events went almost unnoticed. Four years later, she released the album At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women (1988), dedicated to girls “in adolescence, with one foot in childhood and one in the adult world.” The book received favorable reviews from critics, but the name Sally Mann remained virtually unknown to the general public.

The heroes of Sally's third photo album, Immediate Family, 1992, were her son and two daughters, who were between 7 and 13 years old at the time the book was published. This relatively small book - only 65 black and white photographs - instantly elevated her to photographic Olympus. And as often happens, the main reason for such rapid success was not the author’s talent, but the scandal accompanying the book: the fact is that, according to a number of critics, the poses of the children in some photographs were “overtly erotic.” Representatives of various committees such as “Child Protection” went even further, declaring these photographs “veiled child pornography.”

To be fair, it is worth noting that not only “stupid American critics” (I came across this definition in several Russian-language articles) attacked the poor photographer. Respectable housewives - in calls to talk shows, in letters to newspapers and on forums on the Internet - showed themselves to be even more severe fighters for morality. And this is typical not only for conservative America - I easily found a dozen multi-page discussions of Sally Mann’s photographs on Russian-language forums and I am sure that similar things happen in other languages.

“These are innocent childish poses. If you see eroticism in them, then this is a problem of your perception, incorrect adult interpretations,” her supporters repeat after Sally Mann. “If you were in her place, would you expose your children, naked, like this, for the whole world to see?” their opponents ask. And no one answers anyone. And what is your answer? The poses are indeed childish and innocent – ​​but the book is intended for adults, who also have “misinterpretations”. And a normal person in the street will never agree to the publication of photographs of their naked children in the media mass media- only Sally Mann is an artist (even with the prefix “photo”), and not at all an average American housewife.

Speaking of photographers. Children's erotica was never considered something forbidden by the latter - back in the 19th century, the famous English writer and part-time photographer Lewis Carroll made a number of beautiful photographic portraits of naked girls, which allowed 20th century researchers to accuse him of pedophilism with all their might. Today, the world community would condemn the photographs of the sons of one of the most famous photographers of all time, Imogen Cunningham, but she did not even suspect that she was doing something reprehensible. The German photographer Wilhelm Plushow was persecuted in Italy in the 1910s (though not for photographs, but for child molestation), while his colleague and compatriot Wilhelm von Gloeden, possessing the same vices, lived with honor in Sicily. There is a legend that the English king Edward VII took his photographs to Great Britain as diplomatic baggage!

This is far from full list recognized - and talented - photographers who could be accused of pedophilia, producing child pornography and who knows what other sins. But they were “lucky” to create at a time when you could go to prison for homosexuality, and you could do whatever you wanted with your children (especially your own). In the last decade of the 20th century, the situation changed dramatically: death prevented Robert Mapplethorpe from being accused of producing child pornography, but on April 7, 1990, the director of the Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati in Ohio, which hosted an exhibition of the deceased, was arrested. And even though the court later acquitted him, supporters of creative freedom had one less illusion. On April 25 of the same year, San Francisco police officers, accompanied by FBI agents, raided the studio of Jock Sturges, famous for his photographs of teenagers on nudist beaches.

The artistic community of the United States and Europe came to the defense of their brothers and, largely thanks to this support, the court did not bring any charges against Sturges. As for the “non-artistic community,” opinions were divided, although it should be admitted that rallies under the slogans “Stop Pornography” took place more often.

I dwell on these details in such detail to show that Sally Mann knew very well what dangers threatened her, that she went to publish the photo album quite consciously - I remind the reader that the book was published in 1992, two years after the events described above. And when she argued that “children’s sexuality is a combination of words with opposite meanings,” she was aware (more precisely, she should have been aware) that law enforcement agencies, and many of her contemporaries, thought differently.

Before publishing the book, the author tried to protect herself from possible legal troubles. She consulted with representatives of the FBI and the prosecutor's office, enlisted the support of the children, and in order to give their voices more credibility, she sent the two older ones for examination by a psychologist. It was announced that children had the right to veto the publication of certain photographs - this was probably true, but Sally Mann did not forget to mention this publicly. For example, the youngest daughter Virginia did not want readers to see how she relieved herself, and Emmett and Jessie demanded that photographs in which they looked like “crazy or idiotic” be removed. But the lack of clothes did not bother them at all. They were looking forward to the release of the album and, when the mother hinted at postponing the publication for several years (“until the children begin to live in other bodies”), they protested violently. In the end, it turned out that Sally Mann decided to publish only by yielding to the wishes of the children!

Be that as it may, in 1992 the book was published. It caused a completely predictable storm of emotions and brought its author all-American, and soon worldwide, fame. The New Republic magazine described the album as “one of the greatest photo books of our time,” and the New York Times said that “no photographer in history has soared to fame so quickly.” And the fact that fame turned out to be somewhat more scandalous than the author would have liked - apparently this could have been avoided, but then the path to the top would have required much more time and effort. And would she have made it? Looking ahead a little, I note that not before the release of “Immediate Family”, not after it, Sally Mann did not create anything equal in impact. And it’s not just about scandalousness - it’s enough to look at the album to understand that we are dealing with a great artist. Moreover, I would venture to say that for such a statement it is enough to look at the photographs from the album on the monitor screen; although if you have the opportunity to purchase an album or visit an exhibition, be sure to do so.

Helmut Newton wrote in his autobiography that a story about the path to success can be interesting; the description of success itself “simply is not of interest to readers.” This fully applies to Sally Mann, so I will only schematically describe her further work. In 1994, she published her fourth book, Still Time, which included photographs of her children, earlier nature sketches, and several abstract photographs. In 2003, the album “What Remains” was released, in which she decided to show different facets of the world around us: here are mysterious landscapes, close-ups of children’s faces, and half-decomposed corpses (an association involuntarily arises with a snake made of dog excrement at a dinner party). little Sally's table). “Death is powerful and is best seen as a point from which to see life more fully. That’s why my project ends with photographs of living people, my own children,” she revealed her plan. Overall, the album makes a strong, albeit depressing, impression. Sally Mann's sixth photo album, "Deep South", 2005, includes 65 landscape photographs taken between 1992 and 2004.

The release of each album was accompanied by exhibitions, which were successfully held in America and Europe. Of course, she exhibited not only photographs included in the albums; visitors to the exhibitions could get acquainted with her successful and not so successful experiments in a variety of fields. So, after “Deep South”, for some time she made and photographed still lifes from... dog bones (the snake on the dinner table comes to mind again). “What I love about these dog bones is their uncertainty, their ambiguity,” she explained, “I mean, what I really love about photography is its dishonesty. It has to be weird in one way or another, or it’s not for me.”

One of her latest projects is a photographic study of the muscle atrophy that her husband has suffered since 1994. This incurable disease causes weakened muscles and loss of muscle mass (in Larry Mann's case, in his right leg and left arm). It is clear that this disease does not make a person look good and it takes a lot of courage from both spouses to continue working. Sally calls the project “Marital Trust” - it includes all aspects of life: washing, morning toilet, gardening, even sex. Will we ever see these photos? “I just know that they exist and that they are good,” says the photographer, “maybe they will never be published. Maybe after my death. But the fact that these photographs are in a box in my laboratory is of great importance to me.”

There are very few examples of such projects in the history of photography: to be honest, the only ones that come to mind are Richard Avedon and Pedro Meyer, who photographed the process of their parents’ dying. In all likelihood, Sally Mann has the sad honor of being the first female photographer to do this, so perhaps we are about to witness a scandal associated with her name.

Now we can say with confidence that Sally Mann is one of the most significant American photographers of the late 20th - early 21st centuries. She has received a number of prestigious awards and titles, her photographs are sold at auctions and are included in permanent exhibitions leading world museums. She became the subject of two documentaries: “Blood Ties” (1994), nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best documentary, and What Remains (2005), which won the Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Atlanta Film Festival.

Probably every creative person who has a talent from God sees this world differently from the average person. But not everyone will be able to convey their vision to people, to convey the meaning of their view of the surrounding reality. It is even more difficult to prove your point of view and not change yourself for the sake of public opinion. When such a person looks at life and the world as a whole through the lens of a camera, then creations are born that cause delight among some and censure among others. In both the first and second cases, we think about it, and a spirit of contradiction arises.

Black and white worlds of Sally Mann

The American Sally Mann, known for her photography, is a master of evoking such feelings. They started talking about her when black and white photographs were published showing members of her family, children, in a candid but completely natural way. According to the author herself, she depicted what an ordinary mother or father sees when raising their children. Sally Mann's camera, by the way, invented a hundred years before her birth, captured various episodes of childhood, including unpleasant ones. Of course, she touched on the difficult moments of a growing child, which are not usually discussed openly: childhood fears, self-doubt, interest in the opposite sex, misunderstanding of adults, loneliness, forbidden dreams and vicious thoughts. Her sincerity surprised many, to put it mildly, even shocked. Accusations of child exploitation and violation of moral principles began to pour in. But the photographer managed to give a worthy response to criticism and flagellation addressed to her, having secured legal support in advance, and moved forward through new artistic discoveries, which she began to make at a young age.

Photographer and actress Sally Mann was born on May 1, 1951 in Lexington, Virginia. Father - physician Robert S. Munger, mother Elizabeth Evans Munger - owner of a bookstore at the University hometown Lexington. Sally and her two older brothers grew up in an atmosphere of creativity and encouragement. Parents did not forbid their children to discover themselves and the world, welcomed any manifestation of a creative note in their children. The photographer recalls with particular warmth and tenderness her youth in her hometown. He also remembers his father, a man of mystery, so unlike typical doctors, with his extraordinary antics and irrepressible thirst for life. It was he who instilled in Sally the ability to see what is often hidden from our eyes and opened the door to the world behind the photographic lens. And most importantly, he taught her to walk confidently through life and remember that a person with character has no need for a reputation.

Sally Munger graduated from Putney School in 1969, where she studied in depth art. In high school, she became interested in photography, starting to photograph her classmates, who without hesitation posed for her in the nude. She then attended classes at Bennington College, where she studied photography with photographer Norman Sayef. There she met her future husband, Larry Mann. In 1954 she graduated with honors from the literary department of Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia. And a year later she became a Master of Fine Arts, receiving a specialty in Writing. But Sally Mann did not indulge in writing; she was attracted by a world that can only be seen through the lens of an old camera. So she began working as a photographer at Washington and Lee University. Did Mann know then that over the years she would make a significant contribution to the development of art, for which she would be awarded an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, that she would become a Guggenheim Prize winner, and her works would be exhibited in museums and galleries in Washington, New York, San Francisco, Boston, Tokyo.

At the age of 26, Sally presented her first photographic works at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, and in 1984 the photo album “Clairvoyance” appeared. Mann never heard any comments on her work, but continued along the planned path. In 1988, photographs were published, combined into the album “Twelve. Portraits of Young Women,” in which the author demonstrated the process of a teenage girl becoming a young woman. Sally Mann's talent was noticed and appreciated, although controversy arose over the perhaps excessive drama and expressiveness of her photographic work.

A real flurry of emotions, criticism and condemnation was caused by her third photo album, entitled “Close Relatives,” which was released to the world in 1992. In sixty-five black and white photographs we see people close to Sally, her husband and their three children, son Emmett, daughters Jessie and Virginia. The fact that they are depicted mostly naked was the reason for heated discussion. Some photos were censored because they were clearly erotic in nature. The author herself explained this vision of her work as a distortion of an adult understanding of completely natural things. Of course, she touched on topics that adults often turn a blind eye to, but which concern children at any age in their own way.

In 1994, Sally Mann's fourth photo album, It's Not Time Yet, was published. The traveling exhibition consisted of sixty photographs taken over twenty years, showing not only Sally's children, but also the unusual landscapes of her native Virginia, as well as abstract works. In the same year, director Stephen Cantor presented at the Sundance Film Festival a documentary about Sally Mann, Blood Ties, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Mann became interested in landscapes back in the mid-nineties, using a century-old photographic process technique. Using this technique, her works were performed, presented at two exhibitions in New York: in 1997 under the title “Sally Mann - Homeland”. Modern Landscapes of Georgia and Virginia; in 1999 - “Deep South”: landscapes of Louisiana and Mississippi. In 2001, Sally Mann deservedly received recognition as photographer of the year, according to Time magazine.

The already famous photographer made people talk about herself with even greater zeal than after the publication of her “Immediate Relatives.” In 2004, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., photography enthusiasts were presented with works by Sally Mann entitled “Remains.” The exhibition included five sections, four of which were united by the theme of the inevitability of human life, that is, death. In the photographs of the first section we see what is left of Sally's beloved dog. The second contains dead bodies in the process of decay, stored in the Federal Forensic Anthropological Foundation, known as the “body farm.” The photographs of the third part of the exhibition depict the place in the Mann domain where an armed escaped convict was killed. The fourth section takes us back to the times Civil War in the USA, we see an episode of one bloody battle. It seems that the shadow of death will haunt you more than once, but now we move on to the fifth part of the exhibition and understand that the author is optimistic about the future. In the photographs are Sally Mann's children, and life again began to sparkle with rainbow colors. After all, according to the author of these works himself, death, no matter how depressing it may be, helps us understand the fullness and richness of life.

In her sixth photo album, “The Deep South,” published in 2005, the author included photographs taken between 1992 and 2004. On them you can see very different landscapes: from battlefields and a crumbling mansion overgrown with kudzu, to mystical and somehow unreal pictures of nature in the distant South. Thanks to the author’s extraordinary vision and, to some extent, the technique of the collodion process, the photographs provide an opportunity to look into another reality. It seems that if you touch them with your hand, you will find yourself in another world, where there are no people and their inherent bustle. There life flows on its own and lives by its own laws.

Sally Mann continues to attract interest with her work, which is invariably created in a photo studio on her home estate.

In 2006, the premiere of the second documentary film about the life and work of the photographer, “What Remains,” filmed by the same director Stephen Cantor, took place. He received a special award at the Atlanta festival. At the same time, Mann received an honorary doctorate in art history. True, an unpleasant incident also happened: Sally fell from a dying horse and injured her back. She spent two years recovering from her injury and at the same time took a series of self-portraits. Later, in 2010, they will be included in the photo album “Flesh and Spirit”, and it will also contain previously unpublished landscapes, early photos of children and a husband who has suffered from muscular dystrophy since 1994. By the way, Mann embodied her family life with Larry in a separate project, “Spousal Trust,” which reflects thirty years of their life together. One must have mutual courage in order not only to fight an incurable disease, but also to photograph it. But Sally Mann is no stranger; she probably knows why and for whom she lives and works. And fans of her work can only wait for new works from a person who openly and honestly looks at the world through the lens of an old camera.

Born in the hospital that was once the home of Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson, Sally Mann lived in Virginia and always proclaimed her “Southernness,” both in photographs and in the gripping and acclaimed book of memoirs, Don't Move. Hold Still”). She says what ties her photography to the South is her fascination with the place, her family, the past, her love of the light there, and her willingness to experiment with a level of romance greater than most 20th-century artists could tolerate. Add to this romanticism the influence of Southern writers, and you get a touch of the Gothic. There is also a touch of expressionism in the mix, enhanced by the desire to express strong feelings and the ability to do so.

All of this Southernness, with its obsession and tenacity, is now on display in an ingeniously curated and beautifully designed retrospective exhibition in Washington, D.C., spanning most A 40-year career as a photographer: Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings, at the National Art Gallery. 108 photographs, 47 of which are being shown for the first time, and a lavish catalogue, provide a fascinating tour of the photographer's achievements. This is also a record of a research journey - into the past, into the history of the country and photographs, captured by the author’s bright gaze.


The exhibition focuses on Sally Mann's preoccupation with family relationships as her children grew up, and she keenly documented all the conflicts and complex relationship knots of growing up. After that, she began to discover both her native Virginia and the nearby Southern states.

The works become visually more profound—and in some cases harrowing and dramatic—as the author takes a detour into Southern history. Later she returns to her children, increasingly exposed to the effects of time, to her own close brush with death in a horseback riding accident, and to her husband's sad development of late-onset muscular dystrophy. Photographs of children most reflect the idea of ​​smooth progress, movement through life. As if in contrast to these works, Sally Mann turns to racial history, to memories of the past, threads from which stretch into the consciousness of people of our time.

Her work has never been superficial, but over time the artist goes deeper and confronts the dark side of life with more daring defiance. The exhibition convincingly demonstrates her exceptional sensitivity, fearless exploration of different techniques, growing skill as a printer and willingness to provide answers to difficult questions of life and death. (Her past tendency to go overboard in Romantic Expressionism also rears its head). Not all of her work reaches the level of her masterpieces, but these masterpieces are filled with passion.


The exhibition is organized by Sarah Greenough, senior curator and curator in the Department of Photography at the National Gallery of Art, and Sarah Kennel, curator of photography at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Sally Mann burst into the national consciousness with her fourth book, Immediate Family, in 1992 (the book was republished in 2015) - "for all the wrong reasons." When the entire country was in a state of hysteria about child abuse and nudity (of any kind) (remember the Mapplethorpe trial?), her photographs of three children on their remote farm, with parts of the children naked, caused a "child pornography/bad mother" uproar. . The fact that these pictures only tell about children playing with each other and with their parents in the hot summer by the river did not bring anyone to their senses. But many photographers understood these works, appreciated them and were influenced by the author.

There are few nude photographs in the exhibition, but they explore complex themes such as the fleeting nature of innocence, childhood struggles between affection and independence, and the constant fears of danger that haunt parents. The photograph "Jessie Bites" shows a child's anger - and at the same time the need for physical support, expressed in this case by the half-hearted arm of an adult with bite marks. "Emmett Floating at Camp", an unpublished photograph from 1991, showing one of the children floating in gray nowhere. This image became timeless and incredibly sad as Emmett gradually became schizophrenic and committed suicide in 2016.


As the children grew older, Sally Mann began to explore the South itself, inspired by the idea that the "lavish beauty" of the landscape transformed the scene into a strange mixture of vulnerability, rebellion and charity that reflected the character of the region as a whole. In a section called “The Land,” she uses vintage optics, achieving artifacts that would horrify more photographers. early years, perceiving them as shortcomings.

The earth lies bathed in dazzling southern light and filled with moisture, the sky above it looks like a vault thanks to the vignetting around the edges - or is it the Cosmos itself? She sees light as a great lover caressing the earth, or a great rapist tearing apart the earth's integrity, and often as a great designer changing our concepts of what should stop attention in the first place.

And she considers this luxury and beauty deceptive, because she feels death under her feet, the death of the slaves who cultivated and developed this land. “I had a bit of a fascination with death, it seemed to be hereditary,” she says, adding, “my father had the same feeling, I’m sure.” Their family home was full of images of this theme from many different cultures, and thus the theme permeated the photographer's consciousness from childhood. As she wrote: "Death is the sculptor of the enchanting landscape, the damp creator of life who one day devours us all."

This was later complemented by her realization that the entire South was plagued by racism, even those people who considered themselves opposed to it. This realization hit her unexpectedly when she went north to boarding school. As a child, she was deeply traumatized by the brutal murder of Emmett Till, a black Chicago teenager who was kidnapped, mutilated and murdered in Mississippi in 1955; she would later name her first child after him.

But she didn't wonder why Virginia Carter, her beloved black nanny, known as GG, had to eat in the car when she traveled with her family. One day, having realized everything completely, she went to look for signs associated with Till’s death. Neither her photograph of the bridge from which he was supposedly thrown into the water, nor the piece of shore where the body was later washed up, look like evidence of murder, despite a thin white streak near the bridge, similar to a tear mark. Photographs are mute, and speak only if they are helped to speak. Once titled, these two photographs remind us of the disgusting history and indifference, and outrage our minds.

She dared to move further to the battlefields of the Civil War. The gallery of works was replenished with large, dark paintings: angry, depressive, demanding. Using 19th-century style collodion negatives and vintage lenses, she introduced randomness into her prints, enhancing the sense of historicity and emulating the random ravages of war. Some powerful images of Antietam, the site of the bloodiest day in history American history, look dark and gloomy, like death itself. In one of them, half a black sun looms on the horizon, and the second sun, fuller but less clear, gains ominous power in the sky. On another, a curtain of black, heavy cloud descends, illuminated by what may be lightning. In these images, blind killing power is mixed with mourning.


The group of photographs of the Great Dismal Swamp, where fugitive slaves fleeing from south to north hid and where many of them died, is also powerful and harrowing. They were created using the archaic tintype technique, and are relatively small. The foliage, atmosphere and reflections are dense and impenetrable, like emblems of evil. I'd like to see them in larger sizes, these pitiless views with no way out, like hellscapes disguised as art.

Sally Mann also made a series of serious, melancholic portraits of black people, taken, as she writes in Don't Move, in an attempt to atone for her early blithe ignorance of racism, and to try to understand these people whom she had not yet truly seen.

She asked more than once whether the earth had memory. Okay, so be it. But we create it by building monuments, cemeteries, roadside steles, memorials on the fields of past battles. But the story moves on; grass grows on the past.

The last room of the exhibition is filled with a personal sense of mortality. Portraits of the author's three grown-up children, taken in such close-up that hair is not visible and faces are not easy to distinguish. One of the faces has his eyes closed, another one seems to blur and disappear. We have come full circle and come to the same thing: the inexorability of time, and the parental fear that something bad will happen to the children - as happened later with the death of Emmett.


And also respectful, caring in spirit works, part of a series dedicated to the destructive effects of the disease on the husband’s body - a thin arm, a torso that has ceased to be muscular. The series is called “Hephaestus”, named after the ugly god, patron of metal work. An intricate cascade of what could be molten metal crosses the image of the torso of a man who is both a lawyer and a blacksmith. These photographs are a testament to a marriage based on trust and love, and a living example of how Sally Mann turns her fears into art.

And the exhibition ends with a color video by the author a brief overview the lush green land where she lived most of her life. My eyes and my mind were so accustomed to black landscapes that the full color video overwhelmed me and made me feel like something had gone wrong. Photography can change our lives in many ways.

There is a special heroism in looking straight at all the dark things hiding behind the landscape, at the complexities of your family and life, the memory of atrocities in history. There is probably nothing heroic about being "obsessed" with death, but when it results in the creation of works of art of the highest order, the matter can be considered closed by the highest standards. In the end, death is also “fixated” on us, and the last word belongs to it.

_________________

Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings

The exhibition is open until May 28 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and then moves to the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Massachusetts), the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and other museums.



Article text updated: 08/06/2018

Last November my wife and I went to independent travel to India. We flew on Aeroflot flights from Yekaterinburg to Delhi with a transfer to Sheremetyevo. We specifically bought tickets in such a way that we had the opportunity to spend a day in Moscow and see the most interesting places in the capital. Today I will show you the route that I have taken my friends on more than 10 times: Red Square - Cathedral of Christ the Savior - All-Russian Exhibition Center (VDNKh). We will see a map of the excursion, find out how to get to the sights and look at photographs.

Self-guided tour route around Moscow and a map of interesting places

As I have already noted, the scheme described below has been tested by me many times in practice: we walked along this route with people of different ages, weights and interests. Therefore, I can say with confidence that it is unlikely that you will be able to see more in one day: either you will be so exhausted that you will not want to go somewhere else, or there simply won’t be enough time if you have several hours at your disposal.

I usually start my tour with a visit to Red Square. Here we see the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, GUM, Lenin's Mausoleum, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden. Then we go on foot to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, from the Patriarchal Bridge in front of which there is a stunning view beautiful view to the Kremlin towers. Here is a monument to Peter I.

By this time, the tourist is already quite hungry, so you can go eat at the small cafe “Pelmeni” not far from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior (address: Lenivka St., 6). In about 50% of cases, my fellow travelers no longer find the strength to move on and the excursion ends.

If the desire to see the sights of Moscow has not passed, we go down to the metro and go to the Vorobyovy Gory station, where in half an hour we climb a steep slope to the observation deck. It is located opposite the Lomonosov Moscow State University building. From the marble parapet there is a wonderful panorama of the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow City, the Ostankino Tower, Stalin's skyscrapers (the Ukraine Hotel, the house on Kudrinskaya Square and the Foreign Ministry building), the White House and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in the distance.

In November 2016, my wife and I decided to make changes to the Moscow excursion route and instead of Sparrow Hills we went to VDNKh, where we planned to take photos at the famous Friendship of Peoples fountain and the Worker and Collective Farm Woman monument.

How to get from Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports to Red Square

Before we talk about our excursion to the sights of Moscow, let's discuss how to get to the center, by which I mean the Kremlin and Red Square. It’s more convenient and easier to go here by metro (I advise you to carefully study the map of the Moscow metro and take it with you on your trip).

To get to Red Square, you need to get off at one of the stations:

  • Revolution Square (blue line).
  • Okhotny Ryad (red line).
  • Library named after Lenin (red).
  • Alexander Garden (blue).
  • Teatralnaya (green route).

If you arrived in Moscow at Sheremetyevo or Domodedovo airports, located at different ends of the capital, then you will get to the center via the green metro line. At the same time, from Sheremetyevo you can get to the Belorusskaya metro station (Belorussky Train Station) by express train "Aeroexpress". I like this option with a train because you can easily calculate the travel time (departs every half hour, the journey takes 35 minutes). But the ticket price turns out to be quite high: 420 rubles for a one-way trip. When you are not in a hurry, and are ready to spend a little time in traffic jams for the sake of significant savings, then take minibus No. 949 (cost 75 rubles, operating hours - from 6:45 to 21:45) or bus No. 851 (100 rubles, from 5: 37 to 00:49) and in half an hour you will reach the station " River Station"on the green branch. From here you can get to Teatralnaya without a transfer.

From Domodedovo Airport you can take the Aeroexpress to Paveletskaya (Paveletsky railway station). The journey takes 45 minutes, ticket price is 470 rubles. An economical way is to get to Red Square by bus No. 308, which departs from the stop public transport 100 meters from entrance group No. 2 and takes passengers to the Domodedovskaya metro station. Both "Paveletskaya" and "Domodedovskaya" belong to the green line, along which you need to get to the "Teatralnaya" stop.

The third airport is Vnukovo. A quick and expensive option to get from there to the center is by Aeroexpress to the Kievskaya metro station (Kyiv railway station). From here, along the blue line, we go to the “Revolution Square” stop. Cheap way: by bus No. 611 to the Salaryevo station on the red line. It’s probably easier to start the excursion route to interesting places in Moscow by visiting observation deck“Sparrow Hills”, get off at the “University” stop and walk 2.5 kilometers towards the main building of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov.

I would like to say a few words about this way to get to the Kremlin, like a taxi. At Moscow airports, as elsewhere in Russia, you will be met by a bunch of hucksters offering to take you to the center for an inexpensive price. If you don't want to ruin your vacation and risk your life, don't agree. If you have money, go to the official counter and pay the fare in advance. In 2005, I witnessed an unpleasant situation: I lived in the capital for 2 weeks and had to meet a young colleague flying in from Yekaterinburg, with whom I was supposed to go to a meeting. I strictly forbade him to use taxi services, offering to take the metro to the center. At the appointed “hour X” he calls:

— I didn’t find where the Aeroexpress stop in Domodedovo. I'm taking a taxi. The driver promised to give me a ride for a pittance: 100 rubles in total.

- You're crazy? Even in Yekaterinburg, travel from Koltsovo airport to the center costs 350 rubles, but here it’s Moscow!

- Don't worry. Everything is fine. The taxi driver showed the price list - this price is indicated there...

5 minutes later he calls back: “What should I do? The cost is 100 rubles per kilometer...” In general, long negotiations with the scammer and as a result I had to give up my cell phone and add more money to get to the metro...

I myself found myself in a similar situation in Romania, in Bucharest. We got into the car, drove off, and the meter started spinning like crazy. We began to protest. The driver immediately blocked the doors, called “helpers” on the radio... Boarding, driving 200 meters and disembarking cost $10.

Once again: if you want to get to Red Square by taxi, pay at the prepayment counter or order a car in advance, since everyone now has the Internet. Current schedules trains to Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo and ticket prices can be found on the official Aeroexpress website. For ways to get there by bus, see the official websites of Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports.

What sights did we see in Moscow in 1 day?

We arrived in the capital on the morning of November 7, 2015. There was no point in going to Red Square, since a parade was held here in the first half of the day. We decided to first go to VDNKh (the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy, now called the All-Russian Exhibition Center).

As we walked out of the VDNKh metro station, we saw a rocket soaring into the skies. This is the Monument to Space Conquerors, located at the main entrance of the exhibition center.

At the base of the obelisk there is Memorial Museum astronautics. We head towards it, simultaneously admiring the view of the Ostankino TV tower.

We have a lot of time before the evening flight to Delhi, so we decide to look at the museum exhibition. Here, many exhibits are presented to tourists, including satellites and rocket models, and you can also watch a documentary about how humanity conquered space.

In principle, grannies are not allowed to photograph museum exhibits for free. But before I was caught, I managed to take a few spy shots inside.

750 meters from the main entrance of VDNKh you can see probably the most famous monument in the CIS - “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”. Of course, we couldn’t miss the chance without taking a photo of him too.

Now you need to take the metro and get to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Usually, when asked how to get to it, they answer this way: on foot from Red Square through the Alexander Garden, along Mokhovaya Street (in the area of ​​the Lenin Library you need to cross to the other side of the road via an underground passage) and further along Volkhonka Street. The walking time is 30 minutes.

11. Map with a diagram of how to get from Red Square to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Patriarchal Bridge.

But, as mentioned earlier, there was a parade in Moscow on November 7 and it was still useless to go to the Kremlin. We got to this attraction by metro (Kropotkinskaya station, red line). On the north-eastern side of the cathedral there is a small public garden with a monument to Tsar-Liberator Alexander II.

The huge building of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is impressive both for its gigantic size (capacity - 10,000 people, a small regional city can accommodate; height - 103 meters, like a 35-story skyscraper; mural area - 22,000 sq. m.) and decoration.

The cathedral building itself is a cenotaph (a symbolic grave, without burying the remains) of the soldiers of the Russian army who died in the Patriotic War of 1812 and in the Foreign Campaigns of 1797-1806, 1814-1815. Directly opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is the Patriarchal Bridge over the Moscow River. On the other bank you can see the building of the Red October factory, in one of the premises of which there is now a photo gallery named after the Lumiere brothers.

The bridge offers one of the most picturesque and recognizable views of the Moscow Kremlin.

On the other side you can see one of the " Stalin's skyscrapers"(maybe Muscovites can tell you the name of this building).

Also, from the Patriarchal Bridge you can see the monument to Peter I by the sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, so revered by Moscow residents.

Having taken memorable photographs, we decide that the parade has already ended on Red Square and there are fewer people. We go on foot to the Alexander Garden. Along the way, it’s time to eat at the Pelmeni cafe (address: Lenivka St., building 6). The prices here for incredibly tasty Yakut dumplings (with venison) and other delicacies are quite affordable for Moscow.

So, from our list of attractions that can be seen in Moscow, we have already crossed out the Museum of Cosmonautics, All-Russian Exhibition Center-VDNKh, the Worker and Collective Farm Woman monument, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and views from the Patriarchal Bridge. We move to Red Square, along the way taking a photograph of the “remake” - the monument to Patriarch Hermogenes in the Alexander Garden.

The memorial architectural ensemble “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” is also located here. It was opened to mark the 25th anniversary of the defeat of fascist forces near Moscow.

Finally, we arrived at Red Square - the main attraction for millions of tourists in Russia and around the world who came to see Moscow for the first time.

Let me remind you that on November 7, 2015 at 13:00 a solemn procession began here in honor of the 74th anniversary of the 1941 parade on Red Square in Moscow. Therefore, more tourists gathered than ever before, everyone wanted to take pictures against the backdrop of the Kremlin and old military equipment.

By the way, how many times have I been to Moscow, but never had the chance to get to the Mausoleum. For information: opening hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10:00 to 13:00.

Another attraction that can be seen on Red Square is St. Basil's Cathedral. Its full name: Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Moat. It was originally built by order of Ivan the Terrible in honor of the capture of Kazan.

A monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky was placed next to the temple in 1931 (in fact, it was opened in 1818). Before that, he stood in the middle of Red Square.

This is where our strength ended and only one desire remained: to sit down somewhere as soon as possible. In the evening, we didn’t want to risk checking the severity of Moscow traffic jams, so we went to Sheremetyevo by Aeroexpress.

You probably realized that when going on such a long excursion around Moscow, you need to wear comfortable shoes - girls will die in heels. If you find yourself in the capital early and the desire to see interesting places is strong and you have more time, then I can suggest an extended route with sights that I once walked around the capital: from morning to late evening.

  • Bolshoi Theater (Teatralnaya metro station).
  • Kremlin and Red Square.
  • Victory Park and the Battle of Borodino Panorama Museum.
  • Observation deck "Sparrow Hills" near Moscow State University with a view of Moscow City.
  • All-Russian Exhibition Center (VDNKh), where the flower festival took place.

If you live in Moscow long time, I recommend going to Tula for the weekend (4 hours by train), where you can see the Tula Kremlin and go to Yasnaya Polyana (the museum-estate of Leo Tolstoy). It is absolutely delightful there in the summer: meadows, hundred-year-old oaks, a lake with yellow water lilies. Interesting excursion!

Those tourists who want more comfort and thoughtfulness of their route around the capital can book a tour. For example, check out Sputnic8's offerings.

There are places on our planet that everyone should see at least once in their life. FullPicture offers you a list of the 20 most interesting places which you should definitely visit. And if you don’t have the funds for this, then take out a loan from the lending center SudaKredit.rf. After all, we only live once!

20 PHOTOS

1. Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Türkiye. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, better known as the Blue Mosque, was visited in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI himself, who became the second Pope in history to visit a Muslim shrine. (Photo: Tim Graham/Getty Images)
2. Palace of Westminster(London, Great Britain). Since the 16th century, the palace has been the seat of the British Parliament, and before that it was the residence of kings for four centuries. Palace tower with famous watch is a symbol of London. (Photo: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)
3. Neuschwanstein Castle in Schwangau, Germany. It was built as the residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. After his death it became open to visitors. About 1.3 million tourists visit it annually. (Photo: Image Broker/Rex Features)
4. Petra (Jordan). Petra was once inhabited by about 30,000 people who left the city for unknown reasons. The carved rock architecture has made this deserted abandoned city Jordan's biggest tourist attraction. (Photo6 Geoff Moore/Rex Features).
5. Iguazu Falls in Brazil. This amazingly beautiful complex, consisting of 275 waterfalls, stretches over more than 2.7 kilometers in length. (Photo: WestEnd61/REX).
6. Dome of the Rock (Jerusalem, Israel). This is one of the most sacred places for both Muslims and Jews. The temple hides a stone that is sacred to both religions: Jews believe that it was placed there by God during the creation of the world and is a link between the earthly world and the supernatural; and Muslims, in turn, believe that from this stone Muhammad ascended to heaven to speak with God. (Photo: AMMAR AWAD/Reuters).
7. Kinkaku-ji (Kyoto, Japan). A two-story Buddhist temple, which is completely covered in pure gold, is part of the complex historical monuments Kyoto, included in the UNESCO list. (Photo: JASON REED/Newscom/Reuters).
8. Chichen Itza (Mexico) - ancient city, built by the Mayans in pre-Columbian times. It is one of Mexico's most popular tourist attractions, with 1.2 million tourists visiting each year. (Photo: F1 Online/Rex Features)
9. Taj Mahal (Agra, India). The white marble mausoleum was built by the Great Mughal Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died during childbirth. (Photo: Image Broker/REX).
10. Easter Island, Chile. On the island, which is included in the UNESCO list, there are about a thousand moai - giant sculptures that supposedly protect against evil forces created by ancient local residents islands - Rapanui. (Photo: Karen Schwartz/AP Photo)
11. Egyptian pyramids in Giza. Built between 2589 and 2504 BC, the pyramids still remain a mystery: why and, most importantly, how they were built. (Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
12. Great Chinese Wall(China). This is one of the greatest construction achievements of mankind. The wall was built along China's northern borders to keep out invaders. (Photo: Bloomberg News/Adam Dean)
13. Statue of Liberty in New York, USA. This is a gift to Americans from the French people. In one hand, the statue holds a plaque engraved with the date of American Independence Day - July 4, 1776. They also say that spirits live in the statue... (Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images).
14. Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. The Museum of Modern Art, which opened in 1997, is considered one of the masterpieces of modern architecture. You will not see another building like this anywhere. (Photo: David Ramos/Bloomberg).
15. Niagara Falls(Canada and USA). Three waterfalls, collectively known as Niagara Falls, are located on the US-Canadian border, and their beauty attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world. (Photo: Alan Copson/JAI/Corbis).
16. Machu Picchu (Peru). This amazing evidence of the Mayan civilization, located at an altitude of 2,430 meters above sea level, remained unknown to the world until 1911. Its existence is currently under threat due to earthquakes and erosion caused by a huge amount tourists. (Photo: Roger Parker/Bloomberg News)
17. Blue-domed churches on the island of Santorini in Greece are the most recognizable landmarks in Greece. (Photo: Image Broker/Rex Features)
18. Gibraltar. On a cliff overlooking British territory is a nature reserve that is home to hundreds of Gibraltar macaques. (Photo: JON NAZCA/Newscom/Reuters).
19. Buddha statue (Kamakura, Japan). Known as Daibutsu Kamakura, this bronze sculpture was probably created in 1252. The statue has an opening through which visitors can look inside the Buddha. (Photo: Franck Robichon/REUTERS).
20. St. Basil's Cathedral (Moscow, Russia). The temple was built by order of Ivan the Terrible to celebrate the conquest of Kazan in 1552. Collection of amazing beauty included in the List World Heritage UNESCO. (Photo: USA TODAY)



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