Rafał Milach “The First March of Gentlemen” is a fictitious narration composed of authentic stories. Historical events related to the town of Wrzesnia came to be the starting point for reflection on the protest (...)
and disciplinary mechanisms. In the series of collages, the reality of the 1950s Poland ruled by the communists blends with the memory of the Wrzesnia children strike from the beginning of the 20th century. This shift in time is not just a coincidence, as the problems which the project touches upon are universal, and may be seen as a metaphor for the contemporary social tensions.
The project includes archive photos by Wrzesnia photographer Ryszard Szczepaniak. Wrzesnia. Poland. 2017. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach Kristjan, 14, posing for portrait in Viking gym. He's new to wightlifting. Before he used to play football but decided to quit because of being overweight. "Now I'm training for an International we (...)
ightlifting championship that will take place in Akureyri in few months," says Kristjan. "I'm going to break two world records." © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach Inside the Quba Heydar Aliyev Centre. In 2013, to mark the tenth anniversary of Heydar Aliyev’s death, his son and successor as president, Ilham Aliyev, issued an order that the country’s seventy d (...)
istrict capitals should all build a monumental centre named after his father. The centres are intended to uphold the cult of the dead leader. Almost all
of them house a museum devoted to the life and work of Aliyev Senior, a chess school and the local folk song and dance ensemble. The local communities are not stirred into action by the buildings, but use them only occasionally, such as in April 2016, for instance, when academies marking the ‘victories’ won during four days of heavy fighting on the border with Nagorno-Karabakh were held in them.
Quba, Azerbaijan. 2016. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach After the Russo-Georgian War of 2008, one hundred and twenty-eight thousand Georgians were forced to leave South Ossetia, which had become a puppet state dependent on Russia. Some of them found she (...)
lter in a long-term refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Gori. On a clear day, the buildings of the Ossetian village they were expelled from can be seen from the camp.
In 2013, president Mikheil Saakashvili was ousted and all his personal projects of accelerated change in Georgia were put on hold. Facade-like modernization covered the greatest number of political prisoners in entire post-soviet region. The series of images traces the abandoned dream of a man with almost unlimited power in his country.
Gori, Georgia. 2013. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach Arri, the multi-champion in dog beauty contests.
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, has been called the last remaining dictatorship of Europe. The more unstable Aleksandr Lukashenko’s r (...)
egime is the more dangerous and oppressive it becomes to the people - the last presidential elections in January 2011 confirmed this. People protested against the regime and demonstrations were brutally pacified, journalists beaten up and opposition leaders imprisoned.
When the economic crisis in Belarus reached its peak in spring 2011, the attention of the public was distracted by terrorist attacks on the Minsk metro on April 11. The police acted suspiciously quickly and announced proudly that they had detained the perpetrators only hours after the tragedy. Just a few months later, after a secret trial with limited access to self-defence, two men were sentenced to death.
No matter what happens, the message given to the society by the regime is clear: everything is under control and Belarus has a bright future ahead.
Exploring this motto, I decided to become a propaganda photographer and tried to capture the sense of national pride purported by multiple state institutions. Using this façade, I endeavored to portray the winners of various contests of national and regional level. The heroes of this project represent the best of the best.
Minsk, Belarus. May 28, 2013. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach Xenia Degelko, the president of BRSM pioneer association in Aktyabrsky willage. She is the winner of the “Leader of the year” contest in the Mogilevsky region. She received a pen engraved with her (...)
name from president Lukashenko and dreams of a two floor cottage. Aktyabrsky, Belarus. March 25, 2013. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach BELARUS. Minsk. May 28, 2013.
Elena, the best National Library worker. The new National Library building was finished in 2005 under a special supervision of the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Luk (...)
ashenko. At the opening ceremony he stated, that the building represents the power of Belarusian nation. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach “The First March of Gentlemen” is a fictitious narration composed of authentic stories. Historical events related to the town of Wrzesnia came to be the starting point for reflection on the protest (...)
and disciplinary mechanisms. In the series of collages, the reality of the 1950s Poland ruled by the communists blends with the memory of the Wrzesnia children strike from the beginning of the 20th century. This shift in time is not just a coincidence, as the problems which the project touches upon are universal, and may be seen as a metaphor for the contemporary social tensions.
The project includes archive photos by Wrzesnia photographer Ryszard Szczepaniak. Wrzesnia, Poland. 2017. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach “The First March of Gentlemen” is a fictitious narration composed from authentic stories. Historical events relating to the town of Wrzesnia were the starting point for reflection on the protest a (...)
nd disciplinary mechanisms. In the series of collages, the reality of 1950s Poland ruled by the communists blends with the memory of the Wrzesnia children's strike at the beginning of the 20th century. This shift in time is not just a coincidence, as the problems that the project touches upon are universal, and may be seen as a metaphor for contemporary social tensions.
The project includes archive photos by Wrzesnia photographer Ryszard Szczepaniak. Wrzesnia, Poland. 2017. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach RUSSIA. Moscow. 2007.
- My current occupation is doing nothing - says Denis (29). He is Lena's flatmate and friend from Kazakhstan. They were born in USSR, grew up in the transition time of Peres (...)
troika and started their adult life in Putin's Russia. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach 'What I like most in Russia is myself', says Stas. He is a historian and works as a witer, journalist and PR manager. He was born in the USSR, grew up in the transition time of Perestroika and star (...)
ted his adult life in Putin's Russia. Krasnoyarsk, Russia. 2008. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach Vasya at the backstage of the nghtclub - I remember the day when Yeltzin attacked the white house. I was 13 and sewed the shirts for assignment - says Vasya. His life is deivided between family and (...)
work. He is father of 5 year old Tonya and works as a drag queen, stylist and makeupist. They were born in USSR, grew up in the transition time of Perestroika and started their adult life in Putin's Russia. Yekaterinburg, Russia. 2009. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach 'In the Orthodox religion there’s only heaven and hell. There’s nothing in between. It’s the same way in Russia', says Mira. She was born in the USSR and grew up in the transition time of Perestroi (...)
ka and started her adult life in Putin's Russia. Moscow, Russia. 2009. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach Vasya at the backstage of night club. - I remember the day when Yeltzin attacked the white house. I was 13 and sewed the shirts for assignment - says Vasya. His life is deivided between family and (...)
work. He is father of 5 year old Tonya and works as a drag queen, stylist and makeupist. They were born in USSR, grew up in the transition time of Perestroika and started their adult life in Putin's Russia. Yekaterinburg, Russia. 2008. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach Vaya performing. - I remember the day when Yeltzin attacked the white house. I was 13 and sewed the shirts for assignment - says Vasya. His life is deivided between family and work. He is father of (...)
5 year old Tonya and works as a drag queen, stylist and makeupist. They were born in USSR, grew up in the transition time of Perestroika and started their adult life in Putin's Russia. Yekaterinburg, Russia. 2009. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach Sasha and Nastya in Obsk Sea. - The only way to die is together- say Sasha and Nastya. The are both freelanc internet administrators. They were born in USSR, grew up in the transition time of Peres (...)
troika and started their adult life in Putin's Russia. Novosibirsk, Russia. 2008. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach In 2013, president Mikheil Saakashvili was ousted and all his personal projects of accelerated change in Georgia were put on hold. Facade-like modernization covered the greatest number of political (...)
prisoners in entire post-soviet region. The series of images traces the abandoned dream of a man with almost unlimited power in his country. Tbilisi, Georgia. 2013. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach Community center where Odinn works. He got his first job as a film projector operator at the age of 15. Than he worked few years in the sea. For the past 4 years He's been running local community c (...)
enter. There is a projection room upstairs with this old movie projector. Odinn shows me around telling the stories how it was those days. And than we come across old rolls with Polish documentaries from 70-ties of the last century. - When we ordered a movie from Reykiavik they used to add one more film free of charge so here they are - says Odinn. Faskrusfiordur, Iceland. May 29, 2010. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach Geometric figures and models triggering optical illusions, partly created by pupils of the chess school located in the Khyrdalan Heydar Aliyev Centre. The structure and observation of these objects (...)
is intended to help develop young Azerbaijanis’ spatial imagination and abstract
thinking skills. The man the centre is named after began his road to authority as an official of the Stalinist secret police organisation, the NKVD. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and an opponent of both Gorbachev and the politics of glasnost. In 1993, he became the president of the recently independent Azerbaijan. Khyrdalan, Azerbaijan. 2016. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos
Rafał Milach This is the story of seven people I photographed over the course of six years. They come from Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Krasnoyarsk. They
are the Soviet-born generation that spent their entire adu (...)
lt lives in Putin’s Russia. Yenisey river, Krasnoyarsk, Russia. 2007. © Rafał Milach | Magnum Photos