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Submission Photography

Temporary Concrete

02.10.26 —

My first night in Estonia, in 2002, I hitchhiked into Paldiski, where a vast abandoned building loomed over the town: a Soviet nuclear submarine training center locals called the Pentagon. I came back on a Fulbright to photograph it, and other Soviet sites, before they were gone.

Over 2006 and 2007, with a Soviet-made Moskva-5 camera, 35mm film, and Mini-DV video, I found the occupation built into the landscape: submarine bases, phosphorite mines, housing blocks. In April 2007 the government moved the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet war memorial, and Tallinn rioted. That year I filmed the Pentagon coming down.

Estonia taught me how temporary history is. It lasts only as long as enough people agree to believe it, and when power changes, the concrete follows. These photographs record one shared reality giving way to another.


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Valerie Bischoff

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Temporary Concrete

02.10.26 —

My first night in Estonia, in 2002, I hitchhiked into Paldiski, where a vast abandoned building loomed over the town: a Soviet nuclear submarine training center locals called the Pentagon. I came back on a Fulbright to photograph it, and other Soviet sites, before they were gone.

Over 2006 and 2007, with a Soviet-made Moskva-5 camera, 35mm film, and Mini-DV video, I found the occupation built into the landscape: submarine bases, phosphorite mines, housing blocks. In April 2007 the government moved the Bronze Soldier, a Soviet war memorial, and Tallinn rioted. That year I filmed the Pentagon coming down.

Estonia taught me how temporary history is. It lasts only as long as enough people agree to believe it, and when power changes, the concrete follows. These photographs record one shared reality giving way to another.

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