THIS BOOK. IS SO GOOD. RUSSIAN INTERIORS BY ANDREA 'ANDY' ROCCHELLI. THE BOOK COMES WITH A STORY. SADLY, NOT ONE

WITH A HAPPY ENDING. BUT

IT'S SO VERY WELL WORTH TELLING. AS LIFE-AFFIRMING

AS THE END IS TRAGIC. AND

THE PICTURES ARE MAGIC. READ ON. 

Andy Rocchelli was an Italian photojournalist. This is his only book. It was published in this first edition of 700 copies in 2014. It was funded by a Kickstarter campaign and published posthumously by Cesura, the independent photographic collective Rocchelli had co-founded in 2008. Rocchelli was killed, aged 30, in Eastern Ukraine while covering the war in Donbass between Ukranian forces and Russian Separatists. You can read about it here. That is the unhappy ending. Now for the magical story of the book itself. 
 

Russian Interiors is a book of Russian interiors and the women who lived in them. Rocchelli first visited Russia in 2010 and began a portrait series under an informal quid pro quo basis (and we are only reporting what has been written elsewhere on the Internet here) where his subjects allowed themselves and their homes to be photographed in return for pictures that might help them find Western husbands. That, at least, is how the story is told. 
 

Rocchelli - it can quickly be ascertained from seeing just these few images - had as much of an eye for the decor as the women who adorned them. He was also a natural heir to the Craig McDean for Jil Sander nineties aesthetic, as you can see! 
 

In the book, almost half the photographs do not have human subjects. At least not actual people. They are wall to wall humanity. 
 

This table setting still-life has enough narrative to fill a novel. Even a big Russian one! 
 

The hardback book is covered in wallpaper. Inside the pages all fold out such that you can mix and match interiors and, indeed, different women with different homes. They do look like they could all live in each other's apartments. There is a lot of variation and twists of velour and Draylon but overall these Russian homes present a uniform exotica. 
 

Another cut and paste page fold assemblage. The black and white shoes belong to a different woman. In fact...



The black and white shoes on the silver grey rug is a miniature masterpiece. This is a colour photograph! Guy Bourdin and, before him, Man Ray would have loved this shot. 



Another gem. 



And another. The whole book is page for page perfect. And then with the page folds it is exponentially world class. 

It is an amazing book. Of course it sold out in its first edition. And it sold out again in a second edition the same year. Right now it is unfindable save for the one copy we have today. It is yours on the button below.