Otherworldy photos of former Soviet monuments
- Text by Huck
- Photography by Kosmaj Monument, Serbia by Yang Xiao

Photographer Yang Xiao’s fascination with Brutalist architecture can be traced back to a trip in Bulgaria in 2012, where she first heard about the Monumento Buzludja. The monumental, sublime structure, situated atop the Buzludzha Peak, was built by the Bulgarian communist government and inaugurated in 1981. While hundreds of abandoned communist memorials are dotted all over the Balkans, few hold quite as much intrigue.
“Monumento Buzludja is popular nowadays, but back then, there wasn’t much information about it online, and only a few people had ever visited it,” explains Xiao. “So, I got in contact with a British photographer on Flickr, who had been there before to gather some information. In the end, we became friends and traveled there together.”

Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Qukës-Pishkash Star Monument, Albania
On the trip, the photographer, Mark O’Neill, introduced Xiao to light painting – an art form using hand-held lights to paint and/or draw a scene while the shutter of a camera is left open during a long exposure photograph. Since then, Xiao has visited 40 countries across Eastern Europe, focusing on photographing abandoned places, monuments, brutalist and Soviet modernist architecture as part of her ongoing series, Eternal Monuments In The Dark.
Most of these locations are shot at night using light painting photography, which lend the photographs a distinctly surreal, sci-fi feel, with many of the structures resembling alien spaceships.

Abandoned fountain, Gyumri, Armenia

Monument to the Revolution (Kozara), Bosnia and Herzegovina
These qualities are particularly noticeable in the Tjentiste War Memorial, in Bosnia & Herzegovina, which Xiao says was the most striking and memorable place she photographed for the series. “The spectacular design of the monument, the breathtaking sea of clouds behind it, the huge fireball of a bright bolide across the night sky, all made the overall experience there very beautiful, surreal, and romantic,” she recalls.
For Xiao, the project has allowed her to imagine the past in its former glory. Speaking about the building in her photos, she says: “Their daring and avant-garde appearance used to be filled with utopian and futuristic imaginations, this beauty is dazzling and everlasting.” Through the light painting technique, Xiao hopes to imbue the buildings with the same revolutionary spirit that inspired their creation.
As Xiao puts it: “I am trying to create a door: a door that connects the past and future, prosperity and decay, glory and pain, the monuments in front of my eyes and myself.”

Tjentiste War Memorial, in Bosnia & Herzegovina

Heart of Jesus, Romania

Makedonium monument at Kruševo

Monument to the Fallen Soldiers of the Kosmaj Detachment, Serbia

Stone Flower, Jasenovac, Croatia
Follow Yang Xiao’s on Instagram.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Latest on Huck

Meet the trans-led hairdressers providing London with gender-affirming trims
Open Out — Since being founded in 2011, the Hoxton salon has become a crucial space the city’s LGBTQ+ community. Hannah Bentley caught up with co-founder Greygory Vass to hear about its growth, breaking down barbering binaries, and the recent Supreme Court ruling.
Written by: Hannah Bentley

Gazan amputees secure Para-Cycling World Championships qualification
Gaza Sunbirds — Alaa al-Dali and Mohamed Asfour earned Palestine’s first-ever top-20 finish at the Para-Cycling World Cup in Belgium over the weekend.
Written by: Isaac Muk

New documentary revisits the radical history of UK free rave culture
Free Party: A Folk History — Directed by Aaron Trinder, it features first-hand stories from key crews including DiY, Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and Circus Warp, with public streaming available from May 30.
Written by: Isaac Muk

Rahim Fortune’s dreamlike vision of the Black American South
Reflections — In the Texas native’s debut solo show, he weaves familial history and documentary photography to challenge the region’s visual tropes.
Written by: Miss Rosen

Why Katy Perry’s space flight was one giant flop for mankind
Galactic girlbossing — In a widely-panned, 11-minute trip to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, the ‘Women’s World’ singer joined an all-female space crew in an expensive vanity advert for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Newsletter columnist Emma Garland explains its apocalypse indicating signs.
Written by: Emma Garland

Katie Goh: “I want people to engage with the politics of oranges”
Foreign Fruit — In her new book, the Edinburgh-based writer traces her personal history through the citrus fruit’s global spread, from a village in China to Californian groves. Angela Hui caught up with her to find out more.
Written by: Katie Goh