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In 1935, the Soviet satirical writers (and photographers) Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov travelled to the US, where they journeyed from NYC to California and back by car. The book is their travelogue, originally published in the Soviet magazine Ogonek.

Curiously, the title of their original publication “American Photographs” is identical to the great Walker Evens book of 1938.

And, needless to say, it anticipated my favorite book The Americans by Robert Frank (but you know that by now, don’t you?) – 1959.

Reading through the intro of the book, I came across a quote by Sergei Tretiakov, who in “My Visual Diary” wrote:

“I don’t know what would be more difficult for me during a writer’s trip: to lose my pen and notebook or my camera? My Leica film is my visual diary, without which the processing of collected material would be much more difficult for me”.

And now here I am thinking about my forthcoming trip to Afghanistan…

Will my films (yes, I made up my mind. I’ll bring with me also my F2) and sensor be my visual diary?

 

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