City Hall, Moscow 2012

Dinamo Metro Station, Moscow 2012

© Leslie Hossack

Moscow City Hall is one of the few bright spots of colour in a city of grey. Built as a palace in 1796 and rebuilt in the 1930s, Stalin had the structure redesigned yet again in 1945-46. Two stories were added by celebrated Soviet architect Dmitry Chechulin and the facades were totally changed.

Chechulin was also the architect of the vestibules of the Dinamo Metro station which opened in 1938. The Moscow Metro is arguably the most beautiful in the world; the stations were conceived by Stalin as palaces for the people. Today, the Moscow metro is the busiest metro system in the world with more than 9 million passengers every weekday.  As of 2013, there were 12 lines and 192 stations and more opening every year.

The Moscow Photographs, a collection of limited edition fine art prints by Leslie Hossack, examine Joseph Stalin’s architectural legacy in Russia’s capital. The structures are linked to Stalin by era, architect and anecdote. Hossack painstakingly deconstructs these historic landmarks, revealing them as they appeared when the architects first put their designs on paper.

The Moscow Photographs include: Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow’s 1980 Olympic Stadium; the Small Arena and Swimming Stadium also located at the Luzhniki Olympic Sports Complex; Lenin’s Tomb and Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square; Bolshoi Theatre and Red Army Theatre; Moscow City Hall and Dinamo Metro Station; Gorky Park and Ukraine Pavilion; Lubyanka Building and Moskva Hotel; Russian White House and Kotelnicheskaya Apartment Building, one of Stalin’s high-rises known as the Seven Sisters.

These images are part of Leslie Hossack’s larger body of work that explores Nazi architecture in Berlin, sacred sites in Jerusalem and a Cold War bunker in Ottawa. To view more images, please visit her website.  lesliehossack.com