The Cold War is just a distant memory for many and practically a blank slate for anyone born
after 1980. For most people in the West the realities of life behind the Iron Curtain have
faded into caricatures of police state repression and bread lines. With the world seemingly
again divided between democracies and authoritarian regimes it is essential that we understand
the reality of life in the Soviet Bloc. Photojournalist Arthur Grace was uniquely placed to
provide that context. During the 1970's and 1980's Grace traveled extensively behind the Iron
Curtain working primarily for news magazines. One of only a small corps of Western
photographers with ongoing access to the area he was able to take the time to delve into the
most ordinary corners of people's daily lives while also covering significant events which
unfolded while on assignment. Many of the photographs in this remarkable book are effectively
psychological portraits that leave the viewer with a sense of the gamut of emotions in that
era. Mr. Grace's extensive photographic archive of this highly charged period is the basis for
his new book COMMUNISM(S): A COLD WAR ALBUM. Illustrated with over one hundred and twenty
black and white images - nearly all previously unpublished COMMUNISM(S) gives an unprecedented
glimpse behind the veil of a not-so-distant time filled with harsh realities unseen by nearly
all but those that lived through it. Shot in the USSR Poland Romania Yugoslavia and the
German Democratic Republic Mr. Grace's images reveal an ongoing cat and mouse struggle between
State sponsored forces seeking obedience by regimenting mind and body and their every-day
citizens seeking connection to universal humanity in small moments. Here are portraits of
factory workers farmers churchgoers vacationers and loitering teens juxtaposed with the
GDR's imposing Social-Realist-designed apartment blocks propagandistic annual May Day Parades
Poland's Solidarity movement and the subsequent imposition of martial law and the vastness of
Moscow's Red Square contrasted with ever-present public propaganda communal mineral water
vending machines and endless lines of citizens hoping for an opportunity to buy a cut of meat
or basically anything still in stock at the butcher shop. COMMUNISM(S) thought-provoking
photographs expand and enlighten our view of the history of this period while serving as a
graphic reminder of an era we seem destined to repeat.
