Relationship No. 14

In Soviet Russia, there were two paths for a photographer: join the state-controlled press or work in a state-owned studio making passport, school, and wedding photographs. Bakharev did the latter, and in the 1970s and 1980s he also began independently producing pictures of strangers posing at public beaches; often he would accompany his subjects home to shoot erotic photographs of couples and groups behind closed doors. Soviet law forbade the distribution of photographs containing nudity, and so Bakharev’s unique prints were intended only for the subjects to enjoy. This image of a swimsuit-clad family posing in a nearby forest, a rare chronicle of everyday Soviets at leisure, stakes a claim to nonconformist individuality—both for the subjects and for the photographer as well.