Ahead of the celebrations of the 65th anniversary of Victory Day in the Second World War, British photographer James Hill introduced his vision of people who made one of the greatest contributions to defeat Nazis.
"I wanted to show ordinary people who went through extraordinary times," said Hill.
James Hill began working on this project on May 9, 2006, portraying veterans in Moscow's Gorky Park, and continued it on the same dates in 2007, 2008 and 2009. He gave each veteran he photographed a copy of the picture.
He said he did not want to picture veterans in "heroic poses," because their simple looks express their heroism even better. It is all in their eyes, their sincere and slightly sad smiles.
Hill said that to him the most interesting point is that they are ordinary people but who lived in extraordinary times and who are still living with the memory of that time.
"I am sure if you ask these veterans if they consider themselves to be heroes, they would say 'no,'" he said. "They would say 'I am just an ordinary person, I did what I was needed to do for my country.'"
He also said he was drawn into this project because everything felt very true and very honest.
"These emotions are very 'iskrennie' (sincere), this is a word in Russian," Hill said. "They are very deep and very true. And I think wherever you find deep and true emotions, you find very powerful photographs," he continued.
Russia suffered the greatest losses in the WWII, around 24 million Russians died in the war, and strongly opposes attempts from foreign countries to falsify history.
However, Hill's photographs reflect the history of WWII and modern Russia.
There are different ways in Russia and in the West to pay a tribute to those who brought peace to the world, which also sparked Hill's interest to work on the project.
"In the West we also have a very strong consciousness of what was the Second World War," Hill said. "We don't exactly celebrate the end of the war like in Russia. We celebrate the end of the First World War and that celebration is a different kind of celebration. It is more like a remembrance. It is called the Day of Remembrance and it is a remembrance of the people who are no longer with us, people who died."
"What fascinates me about this holiday is that it is a celebration of people who are still here," he said. "It is a celebration of these people, this generation, this powerful aspect, this relationship between the younger generation and veterans. It is a very emotional moment. And also in Gorky Park, in particular, you have this meeting of the veterans and this is the most powerful, emotional symbol of this day."
Hill has invited veterans whom he photographed for the opening of the exhibition. When each entered the exhibition, Hill greeted them all with a wide and sincere smile. He was really glad to see each of them arrive. He knows everyone by name, rank, he knows their stories well and they have become good friends.
"Some of them I see every year, some I saw once and never saw them again," Hill said. "When I look at those photographs, I can almost name everyone of them, what service they served in. And so to me it is like seeing an old friend. And obviously some of them remember me and some of them don't."
The "Victory Day" exhibition at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, marking the 65th anniversary of the victory in the WWII, is on display from April 30 until May 23.
MOSCOW, April 30 (RIA Novosti, Ekaterina Chernyaeva)
