These are a series of photographs of ordinary people from pre-Revolutionary Russia. I am NOT looking back with nostalgia. I am looking FORWARD. However, I understand full well that what I am today is not only the result of my personal choices, experiences, and actions, but, also, I have a debt to those who went before me. My roots are not in Proddie Anglo-Saxon America, but, in Orthodox Great Russia, so, that is what forms my soul and identity (those who have rejected their roots are sad cases… they have given up something genuine for a mess of pottage… they are to be pitied).
What I notice is not the differences between these people and us… I notice the similarities, for they are more numerous than the superficial differences. Indeed, my considered opinion is that anyone who says, “People have changed”, or “Times are different, now”, or “We understand things better than our forefathers did” is a Slim Shady with an agenda, to be watched with vigilance. People have not changed one little bit… it’s why the Scriptures are green and vibrant after two millennia.
These are our mothers and fathers… thank you!
