Serghei Duve: Bright Memory

This series started out as a personal search for clues and a documentation of private life, but transformed into a narrative about complex correlations with political relevance. Born in the Republic of Moldova, the German photographer reveals his family’s close ties to their former homeland of Transnistria, a territory without international recognition. A multi-layered body of work dealing with identity and origin, everyday life and politics.

A land with its own government, currency, administration and around 375,000 citizens, yet unrecognised as a sovereign state by any other country or international organisation: Transnistria, located on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border north of the Dniester River and officially considered part of the Republic of Moldova, declared its independence in 1990 following the fall of the Soviet Union. As such it is only supported by Russia.

For photographer Serghei Duve’s family, Transnistria is much more that a country with an unresolved status: even after emigrating to Germany 25 years ago, his parents still consider it home, a place for summer holidays, to visit family and friends. The whole region is defined by migration – some are drawn towards the west, others towards Russia. This means that the population is in constant decline, yet for most the emotional connection remains of existential importance. It is a feeling that Duve considers is best defined by the Russian saying swetlaja pamjat – bright memory – words used following the death of a loved one, speaking of the beauty and warmth of memories that remain after a loss. Over many years, the photographer has experienced his own family’s similar feelings towards the homeland they left behind.

Even though his parents moved to Hanover back in the year 2000, they still see themselves as Russian and consider Transnistria as their actual home, as a place they long to be. With Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the situation in Transnistria has not become easier and appears to be a mirror image of other disputed territories whose borders have not been firmly established. The private becomes political – within the photographer’s family, different opinions and attitudes towards the current situation collide. Who is influenced by the Russian media; who by the international; and whose information carries most weight? The familial closeness is now all the more subject to discussions about the status of the country and also about the war in Ukraine. This is the story also told by the images in the series. And yet, this is not immediately apparent because, at first glance, we simply see everyday encounters and activities. Even so, the conversations always revolve around the future, questions of belonging, sometimes very specifically about military service or the consequences for one’s own life of the war close by.

The quiet images develop into a larger documentation about a historic moment. “When I report about my family, it starts out as just my family’s story,” Duve explains. “But then it turns out that other families have similar experiences and feelings.” In his pictures, the photographer gives space to contradictory truths, his portraits and still lifes combine everyday reality with feelings of nostalgia and melancholy, the warmth of memory, but also with the challenging task of determining one’s own position.

Serghei Duve’s series was submitted by the Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Falculty of Photojournalism and Documentary Photography.