These Are the Model Citizens of Europe’s Last Dictatorship
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Arri, the multi-champion in dog beauty contests. Volozhin, Belarus, September 20, 2011. Photo: Rafal Milach / INSTITUTE
Sasha, the best welder of the Republic of Belarus. Winner of the “Brotherhood of Russian and Belarusian Nations” contest. Baranovichi, Belarus, February 26, 2013. Photo: Rafal Milach / INSTITUTE
Ania, Fitness Queen. Grodno, Belarus, February 23, 2013. Photo: Rafal Milach / INSTITUTE
Anastasia, winner in BRSM (Belorussian Youth Association) beauty contest. BRSM is a state organization recruiting the most active people under the age of 35. Many of them become the political elite of the Republic of Belarus. Slutsk, Belarus, March 26, 2013. Photo: Rafal Milach / INSTITUTE
Olga, the mother of the best large family of Smorgon region holding a peacock. Asinovshina, Belarus, February 21, 2013. Photo: Rafal Milach / INSTITUTE
Elena, the best milkmaid of the Slutsk region. Personal best: 1160 liters of milk. Staryca Agro, Belarus, February 3, 2013. Photo: Rafal Milach / INSTITUTE
Stas and Vlad, award winning twins. Bobruysk, Belarus, February 27, 2013. Photo: Rafal Milach / INSTITUTE
Natalya and Konan, the best couple in love. Zhodino, Belarus, May 22, 2013. Photo: Rafal Milach / INSTITUTE
Marina, Miss Belarusian railway in Brest region. Minsk, Belarus, March 22, 2013. Photo: Rafal Milach / INSTITUTE
Vasily, the best policeman of Minsk. Minsk, Belarus, May 11, 2011. Photo: Rafal Milach / INSTITUTE
SIMILAR GALLERIES
Described as “the last dictatorship in Europe,” Belarus is a notoriously difficult country for press to operate in. “Slander” laws that outlaw criticism of the president are written into the constitution. The largest TV station is government-run and is the main outlet for propaganda. Journalists have gone missing and photographers must be wary. Rafal Milach, on the other hand, worked with the state propaganda machine to get his photos.
“I looked for what the authorities would show,” says Milach whose project The Winners is a series of portraits of Belarus’ most dutiful sons and daughters. “This is what they gave. I gave it back; I put up a mirror.”
After submitting a detailed proposal to the Department of Internal Affairs and picking up his KGB-approved I.D., Milach met and photographed citizens officially recognized in state contests as the best. The best in what? Pretty much everything; best nurse, best twins, best couple, best librarian. There’s no shortage of awards for good Belarusians.
“Certified winners acquire an official state diploma,” explains Milach. “Belarus is about facade and the projection of success. The overriding message is that it’s not about the good individual per se but about the good citizen, whose actions benefit the state. These contests remind us of the will toward Soviet restoration.”
In some ways, the project was well overdue for Milach, who is from Poland, which neighbors Belarus. Prior to 2011, he had crossed Belarus many times on his way to Russia, but he had never attempted to make a body of work there. When his Sputnik Collective colleague Andrei Liankevich suggested they make photographs in the run up to the 2012 Belarusian parliamentary elections, Milach saw an opportunity to capture something outside mainstream representations.
“We know very little except for images of political demonstrations and clichés of dictatorship,” says Milach. “Belarus pops into our consciousness only because of elections and riots, police beatings and the imprisonment of opposition.”
Like Ukraine to the south, politics in Belarus are defined first by whether one looks West or one looks to Russian traditions. The current president Alexander Lukashenko is pro-Soviet and has been in power since 1994. Critics have accused Lukashenko of vote-rigging and human rights abuses, but he says his hardline rule has insulated Belarus against instability that has wracked many post-Soviet societies.
“His main idea is to restore Communism,” says Milach who describes Lukashenko’s rule as “soft” dictatorship and identifies elements that are not common to other authoritarian states. “There’s many layers. Belarusians are some of the most widely travelled global citizens. There are no restrictions on internet access. [The capital] Minsk looks like any other European city. But there’s no free press and you can’t criticize the president. If you want to do anything unapproved then you run into problems.”
It’s a society of contradictions. People check over their shoulders in the street before passing political comment, then walk into a McDonald’s. The immaculately clean train station is important to Belarusians who value first impressions, but away from the wide boulevards and central square, the potholes run deep.
Milach travelled far-and-wide to make portraits and was most often met with a warm reception. Due to his state-issued I.D. some subjects presumed he was on government assignment. With only half-an-hour to make many of his portraits, Milach worked fast and without much sentiment. He wasn’t interested in personal stories.
“These winners are objects of propaganda,” he explains. “People are important to me, but in this project I’m looking more at a collection of forces.”
Only a few times did he miss the shot. On one occasion and following a seven-hour train ride, Milach trudged through thick snow to meet “The Best Ploughman” and was denied. Without offering a reason, the farmer refused the portrait. Milach’s chaperone, a Belarusian PR officer, begged but the old man wouldn’t budge.
Milach decided early on in the project to photograph people as if they were packaging in a product-photography shoot.
“I looked for flat and neutral backgrounds and used frontal flash to avoid shadows. I introduced mystery to hide characters,” he says. “It’s actually a very boring way of photographing, but it allows us to see the attributes of the system.”
Winners has received a warm reception online, but we’ve not seen it all. Milach always envisioned this project for the printed page. The book, published by GOST, is slated for released at Poland’s Photomonth features a peculiar design whereby the captions are hidden and the only apparent texts are a presidential decree on the front cover and a patriotic rap song on the back cover. “Only in the book, do you get the full meaning of the work,” says Milach.
All images: Rafal Milach