In 1987, agnès b. set off for a five-day trip to Moscow, then the capital of the Soviet Union, accompanied by Philippe Trétiack, a journalist and writer for ELLE magazine. Her mission: to discover new fashions, new styles and new tastes in a country and amongst a population about which she knew almost nothing at the time.

On her arrival, she found herself immersed in a world far removed from her Western frame of reference: silent crowds, vast open spaces, a difficult daily existence, and clothing that was often sombre and unadorned. But as the five days went by, her gaze turned elsewhere. Armed with her analogue Nikon, agnès b. began photographing for her own sake what she discovered as she wandered around Moscow. Children clinging to their parents, shopkeepers in striking outfits, passers-by, faces, demeanours, clothes: all these details catch her eye and fuel her joy of discovery.

Whether in black and white or in colour, these photographs came about almost spontaneously, alongside the photo feature produced for ELLE. They reflect not so much a desire to document the Soviet Union as agnès b.’s curious and observant gaze upon people and her surroundings.

Through these candid photographs, a picture emerges of Moscow in 1987, just a few years before the collapse of the Soviet Union: a city and an era captured through a multitude of everyday scenes, encounters and details that surprised, amused or moved agnès b. over the course of those five days.