Space communism through the lens: how a French photographer introduced the world to Soviet modernism (9 photos)
In the early 2000s, French photographer Frédéric Chaubin spent seven years traveling through fourteen former Soviet republics to document the unique buildings of late Soviet modernism, featuring distinctly futuristic and cosmic motifs. Most of these sites remained virtually unknown to Western audiences at the time and were rarely captured by foreign photographers.
The culmination of this extensive journey were photographs of ninety architectural monuments—from sanatoriums to concert halls—scattered across a vast territory from Estonia to Uzbekistan. These works formed the basis of the renowned photo project "Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed," published in 2011 by the prestigious Taschen house.
The publication was named Best Architectural Book of the Year at the International Artbook Festival in Perpignan, went through several editions, and largely laid the foundation for the global surge of interest in Soviet architectural heritage that continues to this day. 
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