Almost sixty years after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space on 12 April 1961, Direction-Space! examines two sites central to the Soviet space programme: Star City and Baikonur. Russian-born photographer Maria Gruzdeva gained exceptional access to both through family members who had worked for many years within the Soviet space industry, including facilities considered top secret throughout the Cold War.

Cosmonauts have lived and trained in Star City since the 1960s. In the Soviet era it was a top secret location; now also known as ‘The Yuri Gagarin Russian State Science Research Cosmonauts Training Centre’, it remains a military research centre comprising a training facility and a residential area for cosmonauts, their families, and the military and civilian personnel serving the facility. Baikonur, situated in Kazakhstan, was the world’s first space launch facility and is still the largest; it is now rented and administered by Russia.

Incorporating unique archive materials, the book explores the reality of the space community at first hand, investigating the physical and psychological space as well as the routine and lives of its residents. It offers new insight into a subject central to the Cold War history of the Soviet Union and raises questions over attitudes and perceptions formed over past decades. Matthew Shaul provides the introduction.

Gruzdeva offers a unique and personal perspective on these two sites as well as on post-Soviet history and aesthetics. She held her first major solo exhibition in Moscow in 2010 and has since exhibited widely throughout Europe. The book is a quarter-bound hardback of 112 pages, 247 by 310mm, with 120 colour photographs and illustrations.