Boris Savelev - Secret City

SECRET CITY (1981-1985) I was so carried away by photography that in 1983, I quit my job, left my wife, and struck out on my own... a free entity. I worked under contract for various Soviet publishing houses (wherever I could really) so that I would not starve and could pay to support my sons. The only thing I didn´t change was my camera; I still had the ‘Iskra’. I knew that you couldn’t earn a living doing black-and-white photography. I had to get into ‘colour’. I shot on the only colour film available in Soviet stores, ‘Orwachrome 32’. It seemed to me then that this was a terrible film, I even had to develop it myself. The process was tedious – it involved intermediate drying and required constant temperature to half a degree. The grain was ham-fisted, the colours only indicative… Now that time has passed, though, I look at it with different eyes. I can see that the colour rendition recalls that of the early twentieth century ‘Autochrome’, and it looks great now, especially when compared to the ‘soapy’ films of today. My dream was to shoot on Kodachrome, but they didn’t sell it in the shops, and I looked at the beautiful boxes of film used by journalists I knew with envy. Nevertheless, when I saw the results of their work, I was sad that I would never be able to use this film myself. And so, it was back to Orwachrome 32 and black-and-white photography. At the same time I continued to experiment with colour film, the use of colour negatives, cross-processes: under-development, over-development and other tricks of analogue photography. Then, finally, I had some luck – I started working in publishing houses where they handed out colour Kodak Ektachrome film for shoots. I used to use half of any roll for personal purposes. I also processed the Ektachrome myself because I’d already gained the necessary experience for creative developing. These pictures also piled up, and at the same time I got a thrill out of the results. (...) http://www.b-savelev.com/ Text: Boris Savelev Voice: Ken Hunter (AI) + info: www.audiotecafotografica.com