From:Williamson Art Gallery and Museum
Name/TitleWaiting Room, Bender, Transnistria, 2019
About this objectThis photograph captures the waiting room of the bus station in Bender, a city in Transnistria, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. Transnistria is a breakaway state that declared independence from Moldova in 1990, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Though it operates with its own government, currency, and border controls, it remains internationally unrecognised, except by fellow breakaway regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The image was taken on a sunny October day in 2019, during a daytrip from Chisinau, Moldova’s capital. The room is unusually empty for a bus station, allowing the architectural and atmospheric details to take centre stage. Sunlight streams through large windows, illuminating the tiled floor and circular seating on the left, while casting shadows across the right side of the room.
A mural on the far wall depicts a stylised cityscape, a common motif in Soviet-era public art, blending buildings, trees, and a human figure. The Cyrillic signage in the window advertises a Soviet-style canteen upstairs, complete with a sickle and fork emblem.
This space, with its utilitarian design and symbolic artwork, reflects Transnistria’s unique position as a living relic of the Soviet Union. Russian flags are common, and a statue of Lenin still stands outside the Parliament in Tiraspol, the capital.
The photograph invites reflection on the intersection of politics, place, and public space. It documents a moment of quiet in a region often described as “the country that doesn’t exist,” offering a glimpse into the everyday life and enduring visual culture of a contested territory.
MakerBradshaw, Ian
Maker Rolephotographer
Date Made2019
Techniquephotographic print
Measurementspicture height: 47cm
picture width: 65cm
frame height: 60.5cm
frame width: 78.5
frame depth: 1.5cm
Period21st century
Object Typephotograph
Subject and Association Keywordsbus
Subject and Association KeywordsTransnistria, Eastern Europe
Style and IconographyInterior
Credit LineWilliamson Open Photography Prize-Winner, 2025
Object numberBIKGM.9340
Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved
