Russia and the New Normal

These pictures of me at home were made by Kevin Gutting for the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Greenfield Recorder in September 2019. I was preparing for a show about the former Soviet Union with photographer Robert Tobey at the A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts. Pictures were spread all over my house.

That first week of this past September was the week before I began 7 weeks of daily radiation, and weekly chemotherapy, for oral cancer.

My recovery from the treatments started the first of November. Basically, I began sheltering in place several months before the rest of the world.

All photographs by me, except when noted. The above picture is from St Petersburg, Russia. Below is from Baikalsk, Siberia, 2008.

In January, the doctors declared me cancer free. Now, my challenge is to continue recovering from the treatment. I should be at my new normal with six more months of recuperation. I think the rest of the world may be at a new normal around then also.

Above: Irkutsk Airport arrival hall, 2008.

May the world’s new “normal” be better than the old one.

Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, 2008.

I think our planet has used this pandemic lock-down to recover a bit from all that humans have done to it.

Above: Brest, Belarus, 2018

Below: The Japanese Butoh Master Kazuo Ohno at 90 years old, circa 1990. Traditionally, Butoh is a dark, almost tortured, dance form. In this moment Ohno smiled as he unfolded a flower from his robe.

A flower for the world.