Visual Project Management | Grant Work: Democracy + Communism: 3. Cuba + Bulgaria, in Layers: Paskova_Yana_001

This is my father's Army uniform (complete with a five-pointed star — the symbol of Communist rule,) worn during a mandatory two-year service in the Bulgarian military in the 1970s. It is superimposed with Cuban children wearing the uniform of Communist youth as they salute {quote}Votó!{quote} ({quote}S/he voted!{quote}) to citizens casting ballots for delegates to the country's unicameral parliament. Voting is not a mandatory activity in Cuba, but frowned upon if not exercised.Fraying family pictures from pre-1989 Bulgaria inspired this portion of a long-term project on Democracy + Communism. The parallels between them and photos I'd taken in present-day Cuba surface best when juxtaposed — one image layered on top of the other. And so, I attempt to bridge one country’s past to another country’s present — to show that political ideals, its profiteers and its victims, can remain unchanged by time or geography.

This is my father's Army uniform (complete with a five-pointed star — the symbol of Communist rule,) worn during a mandatory two-year service in the Bulgarian military in the 1970s. It is superimposed with Cuban children wearing the uniform of Communist youth as they salute "Votó!" ("S/he voted!") to citizens casting ballots for delegates to the country's unicameral parliament. Voting is not a mandatory activity in Cuba, but frowned upon if not exercised. 

Fraying family pictures from pre-1989 Bulgaria inspired this portion of a long-term project on Democracy + Communism. The parallels between them and photos I'd taken in present-day Cuba surface best when juxtaposed — one image layered on top of the other. And so, I attempt to bridge one country’s past to another country’s present — to show that political ideals, its profiteers and its victims, can remain unchanged by time or geography.