CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 12/19/2015

Soviet Bus Stops

No one covers vernacular Soviet design like FUEL Publishing, and their newest release, Soviet Bus Stops, is one of their best. Photographer Christopher Herwig explains the genesis of this perfect little book, which collects 160 prime examples, including the stops in Echmiadzin, Armenia and Falesti, Moldova, which are featured here. "In 2002 I decided to ride my bike from London to St Petersburg, with the challenge of taking one good photo every hour... Those long roads were the start of my obsession… My curiosity grew, and over the years I’ve hit the road again and again, traveling thousands of kilometers across Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, hunting down the very best bus stops. It was surprisingly impractical to hunt bus stops by bus, so I used rental cars and taxis. Most taxi drivers were confused as to why I was interested in the old bus stops and would speed past them as if they were invisible. The drivers were bemused as I leapt from the car to photograph something that, to them, was just a normal part of their landscape. Occasionally a local taxi driver would become addicted to the hunt too, developing an appreciation for something he had forgotten existed, and together we would careen round the Soviet landscapes, racing the setting sun in search of ‘just one more bus stop.'"