Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Stanford, California ©1975

About Peter Gerba      Inquiry

Aleksander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn (Alexander Solzhenitsyn), Writer and Mathematician, (The Nobel Prize in Literature 1970) was photographed in June 1975 at The Hoover Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, California. Mr. Solzhenitsyn had come to America from the then Soviet Union, upon his release from prison.

“I was arrested on the grounds of what the censorship had found during the years 1944-45 in my correspondence with a school friend, mainly because of certain disrespectful remarks about Stalin, although we referred to him in disguised terms”. From Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s Autobiography Published in The Series: “Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures”, 1970.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn,at Harvard Class Day Afternoon Exercises, Thursday, June 1978 : ” A Decline in Courage [. . .]may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party and of course in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society..”

“Alexander Solzhenitsyn claimed two decades ago, "One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world." Sophisticated observers chuckled at his naivete, but the fall of communism in Eastern Europe has given Solzhenitsyn the last laugh as Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia, Lazlo Tokes in Romania, and Lech Walesa in Poland all confronted tanks and machine guns with words of truth, paving the way toward a new future” Jay Rogers, 12/91

Alexander Solzhenitsyn 3/12/2005: “You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power- he's free again”

The Hoover Institute hosted a small public visit for Mr. Solzhenitsyn on the Steps of The Hoover Tower. Mr. Solzhenitsyn is now living back in the CIS.

The concept for this “contact print” image came out of some past work Steve did at Frog Prince in the 80s. A friend and client, Doug Huff, of McCann Erickson, complained in the mid 80s, that he hadn’t seen any of my Black & White work. Doug’s complaint resulted my meeting with Steve and with some help from Paige Johnson, the poster was published. The three of us shared an award from the Art Director’s Club of New York for “Alexander Solzhenitsyn” 1984.

The image was made from negatives carefully placed on a 4 x 5 glass negative carrier and printed on 11 X 14 Agfa Portriga Rapid. The scan for Steve’s printing was done from the original Portriga print. Steve, to my astonishment, has faithfully reproduced this image. Portriga Printing Paper has been lost, along with the Kodak Dye Transfer Process.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was photographed with a Nikormat, a 300mm, f4.5 Nikkor and Kodak Tri-X film.