Rebecca Matlock - Fourth Moscow Tour (1987-91)

Fourth Moscow Tour (1987-91)

Matlock exhibited her photographs several times in the Soviet Union. Russian speaking, she was often featured on Soviet radio and TV.

Yes, this is my fourth exhibit here in Moscow and I'm slated for photo exhibitions in Leningrad and Vladivostok, as well as Tbilisi, Georgia, and Ulan Ude in Siberia.

These came about as a bit of a fluke. Jack was asked to speak at the auditorium of the cinematographers' union. They decided since they had a very large area outside the lecture hall that it would be rather nice to have several American exhibits there.

But they didn't explain that to me. So they asked me if I would exhibit my rugs. And I said, “Well I'll be glad to, but would you be interested in the photographs instead? They tell more about America than rugs. They're Scandinavian.” And they said, “Certainly.” And then I found out that they were not only talking to me, but they were talking to a lot of other people about it. It was turning into a bit of a bazaar. Nothing to be sold, but just kind of a bazaar-sort of presentation with lots of different aspects of crafts that were American.

So I decided that my photographs really didn't belong in that milieu… So they said, “Well, would you do another show all by yourself?” and so when they had an international film festival, they asked me to put up some of my photographs. I did a show for them and it was covered by television.

The Photojournalists' Union and a number of other people saw the photos. And from that I've gotten many invitations to show them. But the most impressive one I think was when they said that there were 50,000 people who came to see it here in Moscow.

As of 1999, she had travelled in the Republic of Georgia 13 times, and it remains one of her favorite places:

The people are very artistic, personable, attractive and knowledgeable.