Welcome to

A Trans-Cyberian Journey




Who We Are
Welcome to The Russian Chronicles, an experiment in interactive photojournalism created especially for the World Wide Web by FocalPoint f/8. I'm Gary Matoso, a photojournalist based in Paris with Contact Press Images, and on my right is Chuck Gathard and Tripp Mikich in San Francisco, and World Media Network in France, we embarked upon this "trans-cyberian" adventure in Vladivostok on September 11th, 1995 and ended it on November 22nd, 1995 in St. Petersburg.

Now we invite you to join us on this remarkable journey.



The Russian Chronicles
Follow our progress in the Daily Chronicles, or see expanded photo essays and stories in the Road Stories section. You can read what the people we encountered had to say In Their Words, or visit our Atlas for maps and geographical information. Trip At A Glance will show you where we went, how far, and how long. And you can read the mail we received along the way in the Mailbox.



Our Route
Our journey took us across five time zones and over 5000 miles (8100km) of the immense Russian Federation. Our trip began in the eastern maritime city of Vladivostok, just a few hundred miles from Japan. Traveling first north and then west as we followed the general route of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, ending our journey in the northwestern city of St.Petersburg.

How We're Doing It
Lisa and I recorded our digital impressions of Russia using a laptop computer and the KODAK 420 DCS high resolution digital camera. Every few days, these digital photographs, essays, and new reports were relayed from our laptops via SprintMail's global email network to Tripp Mikich and Chuck Gathard at FocalPoint f/8 back in San Francisco. There, Chuck and Tripp edited and composed the images and text into the Web pages you see here.


This site is best viewed using Netscape 1.1N or higher
The photos are optimized for viewing on a monitor calibrated to a gamma of 1.8. To accommodate the best display of the photos resize your screen to be just wider than the line below or any of the banner graphics at the top of each page.


FocalPoint f/8 World Media Network
Co-produced by FocalPoint f/8 and World Media Network
Designed and Developed by FocalPoint f/8

Sponsored in part by
Sprint Kodak Leica

About Our Sponsors
Production Credits
All HTML and Graphics © 1995 by FocalPoint f/8, Photos © Gary Matoso