Soviet Ghosts

Rebecca Litchfield is a fine art photographer and a former Professional Photographer of the Year.

Photographer Rebecca Litchfield captures many abandoned locations, which were either part of the Soviet Union or occupied satellite states during this period of history, including forgotten towns, factories, prisons, schools, monuments, hospitals, theatres, military complexes, asylums & death camps across the former communist states. These photographs deliver a compelling narrative of both moral bankruptcy and flawed ideology. Featuring stunning imagery throughout, this compelling road-trip through the old USSR, breathes new life into these forgotten places, finding both beauty and meaning in their post-apocalyptic decay. Extended essays by Tristi Brownett, Neill Cockwill and Professor Owen Evans, offer considerable contextual depth to the locations imbuing them with a wealth of connection and wonder. By virtue of its holistic approach, the book also explores how and why these once thriving communities became abandoned, whether by natural disaster, man-made catastrophe or simply through the march of time.

Soviet Ghosts is an urban exploration behind the former Iron Curtain by photographer Rebecca Litchfield. First published in the UK by Carpet Bombing Culture, Litchfields images sensitively and beautifully document the abandoned ghost towns left behind, and lost in time following the collapse of the Soviet Union. From Eastern Germany through Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Mother Russia and the despair of crumbling Chernobyl, these photographs deliver a compelling narrative of both moral bankruptcy and flawed ideology. Featuring stunning
imagery throughout, Litchfields road-trip through the former USSR breathes a new life into these forgotten places and finds a cold beauty in their post-apocalyptic decay. Essays in the book offer contextual depth to the images and examines how and why these once thriving communities became ghost towns, whether by natural disaster, man-made catastrophe or the march of time. Soviet Ghosts is an unbridled look at the former Soviet empires wasteland.