Guardians

The "Guardians" are former economists and dentists, engineers and singers, teachers and clerks - a corps of grandmothers perched on chairs throughout Russia's finest museums, forming a kind of latter-day addition to artistic landscape. They are the guardians of the country's masterpieces, but also of much more. These women occupy a significant place in Russia, purveyors of wisdom and keepers of cultural traditions. Grandmothers in some sense rule not only the museums, but also the streets. The photographs that Freeberg took at four museums in Russia - the Hermitage and Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Tretyakov and Pushkin in Moscow - present a humanizing contrast. These guardians are not only visible, but exert a powerful hold over the viewer, in some sense helping to bring the art to life.