A Soviet Coney Island: Yelena Yemchuk’s “Gidropark”

Before the Ukranian-born photographer Yelena Yemchuk emigrated to the U.S., at the age of eleven, she spent her summers in Gidropark, a recreational area along the Dnieper River. Much like the Seine in Paris, the Dnieper plays a central role in Kiev’s cultural geography, and during the hotter months the woods and waterfronts of Gidropark turn into a summer playground, a “Soviet version of Coney Island,” as Yemchuk puts it.