René Nuijens Photographs the Icons that Celebrate Yuri Gagarin, and then Some













Ciao René, how are you?
Good!
What is photography for you?
Photography is a way of expressing myself.
What is Yuri Gagarin Monuments about?
It’s part of an ongoing project I work on with writer Steve Korver called Road to Gagarin. By visiting and documenting the major settings of Yuri Gagarin’s bizarre and dramatic life we aim to capture the essence of both the man who is dead and the myth that is still very much alive. The monuments are very fascinating sculptures, souvenirs from the Soviet time. Some still have a heroic appearance, some are dilapidated; some are of great artistic values, some are quite kitsch. For our project we also made 4 dry comical short films dedicated to Yuri Gagarin, had several art shows and published a photo-booklet with a selection of 10 Gagarin monuments.
Where can you be found online?
At my website, on Instagram, Twitter and Vimeo.













Keep looking...

This Is the (Photo) Story of the World’s Biggest Bonfire

Shane Rochelau’s Photobook Reflects on What It Means to Be a White American Man

FotoFirst — Discover Shahrzad Darafsheh’s Book of Photos She’s Been Taking While Fighting Cancer

Introducing Gnomic Book, the #FotoRoomOPEN Juror That Will Publish the Winner’s Work as a Photobook

FotoFirst — Dennese Victoria Creates a Fake Family Photo Album

The Sand That Ate the Sea — Matthew Thorne Returns to the Australian Outback

Terra Vermelha — Tommaso Protti Exposes the Bleak Reality of the Amazon Rainforest
