Russian Photography
The complex social processes of the early 1990s changed almost all aspects of Russian reality. It the cultural sphere, however, those changes took place very unevenly. Those fields that had existed in a condition of semi-legality in Soviet times – rock music, experimental documentary theatre, innovative art – rapidly expanded and developed. The field of photography occupied a sort of intermediate position in the Soviet era: the concept of “photographic artist” existed, but photography was not actually considered a fine art. In any event art museums did not collect it and hardly ever exhibited it; there was an absence of specialist institutions (centres, museums, galleries); photography’s place in the hierarchy of genres was near the end of the list.
The reasons for this were in part ideological – documentary photography and photojournalism were in the service of the regime and for that reason were rarely viewed as an art form in its own right; the project approach was open only to a few, while “art photography”, which was useless for propaganda purposes, developed in sort of reservations – the photo-clubs. All that has just been said does not mean that in the later years of the USSR photographic art did not have its high points and entirely lacked public platforms. There was the magazine Sovteskoye foto that is remembered by many. Even provincial photographers took part in foreign competitions (without, however, being able to attend them) and took major prizes. In the 1980s the creative Union of Photographic Artists was formed; it still exists today and brings together the best exponents of traditional photography (www.photounion.ru).
In the 1990s a new stage in the development of photography in Russia began, one of the most important features of which was international integration. The lead was taken by photographers whose paradoxical vision and provocative idiom made it possible to place them in the category of innovative contemporary art. It is to that category that Vladimir Kupriyanov and Olga Chernysheva belong.
At the same time as new photography was appearing, the institutional landscape also began to change. An exceptional role in this respect was played by the Moscow curator Olga Sviblova, who created the Moscow House of Photography in 1998. It rapidly built a collection unique in terms of fullness, quality and size, since until then the legacy of the greatest figures from the era of the Russian avant-garde right through to the very recent past had, practically speaking, not been wanted by anyone. Two very important alternating events - the Photobiennale and the Fashion and Style in Photography festival - transformed photographic reality in Moscow: they made it possible to show the work of mega-stars of world photographic art, created a broad context and gave Russian photographers the opportunity to become full-fledged figures within it.
Somewhat later the Moscow House of Photography turned into the Moscow Complex of Multimedia Arts(www.mdf.ru). This allows Sviblova and her colleagues to expand the range of their collecting and exhibiting activities, to bring up a new generation of creative photographers in the Rodchenko School of Photography and to influence a broad spectrum of artistic practices.
In the Russian provinces too the situation has changed in many ways. Besides the regional branches of the Union of Photographic Artists, which continue to function, museums and centres began to appear in a number of cities. In St. Petersburg, for example, on the initiative of the photographic artist Zakhar Kolovsky the Federal State Centre for Photography was created (www.rosphoto.ru). In Yekaterinburg large-scale exhibition activities are carried out by the Metenkov House (www.metenkov.narod.ru). In Ulyanovsk the Museum of Photography of Simbirsk was created as part of the Lenin’s Hometown museum preserve. In Nizhny Novgorod, known as a major centre of photography since the mid-nineteenth century and associated with two classic figures in the field – Karelin and Dmitriyev, the Russian Museum of Photography appeared (www.fotomuseum.nnov.ru) and today it is one of the most active Russian institutions of its kind. Together with the Union of Photographic Artists it runs an important national-level event – the Volga Biennale, a competition that presents a wide spectrum of traditional photojournalism and artistic photography. But here too there is a category that focuses attention on the multimedia technologies that are coming into increasing use, slideshows that combine the photographic and video forms.
In Moscow in recent years several reputable photographic galleries sprang up at once and they not only enlivened exhibition life, but also changed the market for artistic photography. Only now is it possible to say that it has become a fairly common object of collection. Admittedly predominantly in the capital – the location of the galleries Pobeda and Glaz that are genetically linked to the Moscow House of Photography and the galleries Lumière and Photographer. The last appeared as a real-world extension of the large Internet site www.photographer.ru, which is the chief source for news, criticism, names and the most outstanding works from the whole mass of contemporary Russian photography.
The reasons for this were in part ideological – documentary photography and photojournalism were in the service of the regime and for that reason were rarely viewed as an art form in its own right; the project approach was open only to a few, while “art photography”, which was useless for propaganda purposes, developed in sort of reservations – the photo-clubs. All that has just been said does not mean that in the later years of the USSR photographic art did not have its high points and entirely lacked public platforms. There was the magazine Sovteskoye foto that is remembered by many. Even provincial photographers took part in foreign competitions (without, however, being able to attend them) and took major prizes. In the 1980s the creative Union of Photographic Artists was formed; it still exists today and brings together the best exponents of traditional photography (www.photounion.ru).
In the 1990s a new stage in the development of photography in Russia began, one of the most important features of which was international integration. The lead was taken by photographers whose paradoxical vision and provocative idiom made it possible to place them in the category of innovative contemporary art. It is to that category that Vladimir Kupriyanov and Olga Chernysheva belong.
At the same time as new photography was appearing, the institutional landscape also began to change. An exceptional role in this respect was played by the Moscow curator Olga Sviblova, who created the Moscow House of Photography in 1998. It rapidly built a collection unique in terms of fullness, quality and size, since until then the legacy of the greatest figures from the era of the Russian avant-garde right through to the very recent past had, practically speaking, not been wanted by anyone. Two very important alternating events - the Photobiennale and the Fashion and Style in Photography festival - transformed photographic reality in Moscow: they made it possible to show the work of mega-stars of world photographic art, created a broad context and gave Russian photographers the opportunity to become full-fledged figures within it.
Somewhat later the Moscow House of Photography turned into the Moscow Complex of Multimedia Arts(www.mdf.ru). This allows Sviblova and her colleagues to expand the range of their collecting and exhibiting activities, to bring up a new generation of creative photographers in the Rodchenko School of Photography and to influence a broad spectrum of artistic practices.
In the Russian provinces too the situation has changed in many ways. Besides the regional branches of the Union of Photographic Artists, which continue to function, museums and centres began to appear in a number of cities. In St. Petersburg, for example, on the initiative of the photographic artist Zakhar Kolovsky the Federal State Centre for Photography was created (www.rosphoto.ru). In Yekaterinburg large-scale exhibition activities are carried out by the Metenkov House (www.metenkov.narod.ru). In Ulyanovsk the Museum of Photography of Simbirsk was created as part of the Lenin’s Hometown museum preserve. In Nizhny Novgorod, known as a major centre of photography since the mid-nineteenth century and associated with two classic figures in the field – Karelin and Dmitriyev, the Russian Museum of Photography appeared (www.fotomuseum.nnov.ru) and today it is one of the most active Russian institutions of its kind. Together with the Union of Photographic Artists it runs an important national-level event – the Volga Biennale, a competition that presents a wide spectrum of traditional photojournalism and artistic photography. But here too there is a category that focuses attention on the multimedia technologies that are coming into increasing use, slideshows that combine the photographic and video forms.
In Moscow in recent years several reputable photographic galleries sprang up at once and they not only enlivened exhibition life, but also changed the market for artistic photography. Only now is it possible to say that it has become a fairly common object of collection. Admittedly predominantly in the capital – the location of the galleries Pobeda and Glaz that are genetically linked to the Moscow House of Photography and the galleries Lumière and Photographer. The last appeared as a real-world extension of the large Internet site www.photographer.ru, which is the chief source for news, criticism, names and the most outstanding works from the whole mass of contemporary Russian photography.
Anna Gor (Nizhny Novgorod)
