Photographer Spent An Entire Year Trying To Get Permission To Photograph The Empty Moscow Subway

For two weeks last year, Canadian photographer David Burdeny spent his nights 200 feet underground, shooting the surreal opulence of the Moscow Metro. With their ornate chandeliers, marble walls, bronze columns, and intricate mosaics, these railway stations have been likened to an “artificial underground sun.” (Aesthetically, they’re as far from the rat-infested purgatory of New York City’s subway system as you could possibly get.) As far as he knows, Burdeny is the only professional photographer in the world to have been granted permission to extensively shoot these locations emptied of passengers.

More info: David Burdeny (h/t: hyperallergic, messynessychic)