When Arthur Bondar came out of the metro station near Moscow’s Bolshoi theatre, he was heading to a book fair. Besides his work as a photographer, he collects second world war negatives, and there was a catalogue of work by the war photographer Olga Ignatovich he was excited to see. It was early afternoon in Moscow, a relatively mild December day of around -5 or -10C.
“I was approaching Nikolskaya Street, which is usually packed with tourists, locals and street performers – that day there was a bunny and an angel. I was passing through a pedestrian crossroads. There had once been a monastery here, dedicated to Saint Nicholas, which closed in 1923 and was demolished in 1935. I’d never noticed the icon on the left before.”
Bondar waited a few seconds for the bunny to clear the frame, then snapped a couple of shots on his iPhone X as the angel passed by under the arch. He doesn’t usually title his photographs, but gave this image one. Born in Ukraine, Bondar moved to Russia with his wife for work a decade ago. Today, he describes himself as a man between two countries.
“I am in the country that attacks my motherland in a so-called ‘special military operation’, unable to help our relatives who are there under the shells. You can’t even imagine this nightmare – it’s all so illogical. I question if this could truly be reality. This photo is a good reflection of the situation – what is real and what is not?”
