Reprezentări ale tranziției postsocialiste în fotografie: Boris Mikhailov, Alexander Gronsky, Tamas Dezsö

In this essay I adress the issue of postsocialist transition as it was captured by three photographers of the former socialist states: Boris Mikhailov, Alexander Gronsky, Tamas Dezsӧ. The sudden transition that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall had visible consequences on the socio-economic reality in Eastern Europe, „the post-soviet man” trapped in a liminal space, on the border between a failed ideological project he tries to erase from its history (socialism) and one that fails to fulfil its promises, and even proves destructive (neo-liberalism). Combating normative Northwest European aesthetics, through the selected series of photographs I make a critique of the post-socialist period, showing in what way the new reality of late capitalism ruins homeless bodies and derelict spaces. Boris Michailov shows that the new dominant ideology is written in the flesh, choosing to take photos of the social class that suffers the most in post-socialism, and Alexander Gronsky and Tamas Dezsӧ contribute to a panorama of places that are no longer destinations in themselves, but unwelcoming or abandoned, because in late capitalism people migrate to metropolises. Keywords: postsocialism, postcolonial effect, documentary photography, corporeality, corpo-politics of knowledge, normative aesthetics, liminal spaces.