Red Utopia

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Communism seems like a thing of the past: relegated to the dustbin of history. But photographer Jan Banning’s Red Utopia looks at various corners of the world, where the ideology that so determined the course of the twentieth century is still alive and kicking. Jan Banning set off in search of locations in five countries (India, Italy, Nepal, Portugal and Russia) where the ghost of Communism still walks abroad and sometimes even dominates local mind-sets. In cities, towns and villages, he recorded the interiors of Communist Party offices with their often exuberant iconography. Such as red flags and banners, portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao, and pictures of national party leaders and ideologues. He has also photographed local party activists, staring solemnly into the lens from behind their desks. Banning’s images are distinguished by their careful composition and lighting.