Since childhood, like many of my peers, I have had a great fondness for trains: there were many types of trains and railway sets at home and I had a lot of unforgettable journeys on the metro, I wanted to become a metro driver. My dreams led me to the railway institute.
And as a student, I was never parted with my camera and, riding from one station of the Moscow metro to another, was trying to find new angles for photography, to capture underground life in the best possible way. I spent a lot of time in libraries, carefully studying numerous publications; I collected magazines and books about the metros of the whole world.
Some years ago, I got the idea to put together and publish a book about my hobby, but I wanted to make a book unlike any other. And now you are holding in your hands a new colourful photo album "European Metros" printed in four languages (Czech, Russian, English, and French).
It is well known that only a few people get the unique opportunity to personally see metro trains right in the tunnel or depot, and this album opens the doors with the "Entrance for authorized personnel only" sign.
The first edition will show you behind the scenes of the Helsinki, Moscow, Paris, Prague, and Vienna metros.
The book was compiled in cooperation with the archive departments and metro managements of these cities.
The publication presents more than 300 colourful photos of metro trains in depots, in tunnels, and at stations. A lot of rare archival photographs have been colourised. You will see rare, previously unpublished archived images. I am sure that you will be interested in taking a look at a number of photographs, where the same metro locations are shown with a difference of several decades.
Interview with the author of the book European Metros Boris Kogut for the magazine of Prague Transport Company: