THE GAME PLAYS YOU
In 2006, Aleksander Stakhanov had the idea of finding a copy of an old arcade game called Morskoi Boi (a Russian version of the West’s Sea Raider). Together with two friends, Aleksander started collecting those machines; storing them in his grandfather’s garage and later founded the Museum of the Soviet Arcade Machines in Moscow. Arcade games like Morskoi Boi first appeared in the Soviet Union in the 1970s, on the government’s initiative. As with many other consumer products, it was easier for the government to copy items that already existed abroad than it was to develop something original.Many arcade machines were produced by the country’s defense factories. Morskoi Boi, for instance, was produced at a Moscow region factory known as a producer of control systems for the defense industry. It is now part of Almaz Antey arms manufacturing company.
For a long period of time I have been observing gamers and these Soviet arcade machines from the past. I have realised that there was some kind of similarity between these people and the machines. So I have captured portraits of gamers with the portraits of their favourite arcades.