Soviet bus stops subject of new photography book

A Vancouver author's new book explores one of the most interesting and unexpected legacies of Soviet architecture: its strangely beautiful bus stops.

When you think of Soviet architecture, you might think of drab skyscrapers that all look alike. But when photographer Christopher Herwig made a bike trip from London to St. Petersburg. He made a challenge to himself to take a photograph of something — anything — every hour.

"When I got to what was the former Soviet Union, I started realizing that these bus stops were actually quite worthy of being photographed," he said. "They were really creative art installations on their own."

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Twelve years after that bike trip, Herwig has now visited 13 former Soviet nations, travelling over 30,000 kilometres in the process. He's even tracked down some of the former architects and heard their reasoning for designing these weird, sometimes less-than-functional buildings.

"Zurab Tseretel — he's a Georgian artist and he built a lot in the area of Abkhazia. His are some of the wildest and craziest of the bus stops," Herwig said. "He was very much excited about the concept of bringing art to the people and not really worrying at all about the functionality of the bus stop."

"There's one bus stop of his that doesn't even have a roof. … He was asked why it doesn't have a roof, and he basically answered, it's not my problem. I'm an artist. I just need to make things beautiful."

To see some of the photos from Herwig's book, Soviet Bus Stops, check out the photo gallery.