Haunted by the siege
One winter day during the Siege of Leningrad — an 872-day World War II blockade that left more than a million civilians dead — a Russian nurse came across the body of a small boy. He sat at the curb, frozen solid, one hand in his mouth. “I realized he died of hunger, trying to eat his fingers.” Testimony like this — wrenching, frank, and often flat-toned — is part of “The Blokadnitsy Project,” an exhibit of work by fine arts photographer Jill Bough now on view at Harvard. (“Blokadnitsy” are women who survived the siege.) The images on display are artistically complex: black-and-whites of 12 women who survived the siege, framed with collages of artifacts from their apartments, lace or big-flowered wallpaper. Beneath each photo is a handmade book: an album of old photos, of new photos by Bough, and of newspaper clippings. Personal testimony is rendered in Bough’s big, clear print. ...