Born in Czechoslovakia but forced to live most of his life in exile, photojournalist Antonin Kratochvil has spent the past twenty years documenting the tumultuous upheaval taking place in the Communist countries of Eastern Europe. Through his extensive travels in Albania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, East Germany, and the Soviet Union -- and during return trips to the land of his birth -- he photographed life during the depths of the Cold War at a time when few photojournalists were willing to partake in such a dangerous adventure. This unflinching narrative of an era of immense corruption, pollution, loneliness, and terror reveals an unknown and desolate world of workers, gypsies, thieves, street kids, and refugees, where as the photographer says, "All I wanted to do was record how these poor people adapted to lies and suffering, how they got used to it, in fact, that they were bound to miss it when it was over."

Antonin Kratochvil is a photojournalist based in New York. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Time, Newsweek, Mother Jones, Smithsonian, Condé Nast Traveler, and Geo, and his work has been exhibited in New York, Milan, Munich, Cologne, Prague, Houston, and Perpignan. Among his many awards are the prestigious Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography for Journalist of the Year (1991) and the Leica Medal of Excellence for outstanding achievement in documentary photography (1994).