Stanley Greene - Open Wound: Chechnya 1994 - 2003 - 2003

The collapse of Russian communism in 1991 resounded to the shudder of an empire. It also sounded the death knell of the small, impoverished, forgotten land-locked state of Chechnya in the Caucasus, which had the misfortune to be of geopolitical importance.

Chechnya, whose population is mainly Muslim, reiterated its desire to become an independent state as it had already done 150 years earlier. In 1991, most Chechens were not aware of the economic stakes of oil and they were considered peasants who were just good at throwing clods of earth at the Russian cavalry. Today, they know what to expect.

A “lightning war” was launched against the Chechens in 1994, reducing the capital to a rat-infested pile of rubble. Grozny has become the Dresden of the Caucasus. Subsequently the Spetznatz, a Russian special forces unit, chained murders and kidnappings. No one was spared, neither men, nor women, nor children.

But the Chechens are not resigned. What is left in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, is a vision of hell in the eyes of the survivors – pictured by Stanley Greene – that seems impossible to contemplate. What do the mothers of the Russian soldiers who have done this to Chechnya feel now about their sons?

Stanley Greene was born in New York in 1949. Twenty years later he was given a camera. Open Wound records nine years of the history of the Chechen rebellion through his eyes.

“… when you sit on the fence and watch genocide without doing anything about it, you are as guilty as those who are committing it.” Stanley Greene

“a book with a lot of pictures and very few words; most of these photos, as you will see, speak - unfortunately - for themselves.” Olivier Dupuis, Radical MEP in a letter written during his hunger strike to the President of the European Union, Professor Romano Prodi.

“How could this have happened?' " It's a question that haunts these images already.” Dana Thomas, Newsweek

“A powerful testimony of the death and destruction that Mr. Greene has witnessed during some 20 trips to Chechnya.” Alan Riding, New York Times

“His unflinching, painterly photographs of the Chechen people at war with Russia will move the viewer long after that war is over.” Leica View

“His work is special. It touches the right nerve in the attentive viewer…. an enrichment of the tradition established by Robert Capa and Don McCullin.

The work of Stanley Greene…does what good photojournalism should do. It moves in a personal way. It makes us realise that life is too extraordinary not to be taken seriously.” Edie Peters, Foam

“Open Wound takes 10 minutes to leaf through, but leaves behind unforgettable images.” Thomas De Waal, Moscow Times

AWARDS
Winner of the World Press Photo 2004 Daily Life Stories Award
Included in the American Photography Awards 2004, 10 Best Photography Books of the Year