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...

The 10 Most Seen Series on FotoRoom in 2019

Oleksandr Rupeta Captures the Relationships Between Humans and Their Unusual Pets

Cole Flynn Quirke’s Diaristic Photographs Document His Life After His Grandmother’s Death

Isabella Akers Rebuilds Her Relationship with Her Father by Photographing Him

FotoFirst — Marcus Glahn Photographs the Last Transylvanian Saxons of Romania

Entrance to Our Valley — Jenia Fridlyand Shares Poetic Photos of Family Life on Her Farm

Men Don’t Play — Simon Lehner Investigates Masculinity on the Fields of Simulated Wars
