Soviet Photo
May 14 – September 6, 2015
The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography marks its 5th anniversary by the exhibition that spans
the history of Soviet and Russian photography of the 20th century as seen through the magazine Soviet Photo.
Soviet Photo was the most popular in the USSR periodical on photography with the focus both on
professional and amateur photographers. During its lifetime from 1926 till 1997 the magazine witnessed all
key figures of the photographic life of the country. Despite obvious governmental control over the magazine,
it managed to become a flexible enough and virtually single platform for thorough discussion of
photography, held by key art historians, critics, professional photographers and – not least importantly amateurs from all over the union. Soviet Photo also published leading scientists’ articles, covering technical
aspects and details of photographic process. Among theorist who contributed to the magazine at varying
times were Ilya Ehrenburg, Viktor Shklovsky, Lev Anninsky, Sergey Morozov, L. Volkov-Lannit, Anry
Vartanov, Valery Stigneev, etc.
After the logic of the magazine, that was for a long time subtitled as “the magazine of photo
reportage and amateur photography”, the exhibition focuses on the history and convergence of these two
movements. Photo reportage section features seminal and rare prints of the leading Russian photographers
from the collection of The Lumiere Center. Marking as well the upcoming 70th anniversary of the end of the
Second World War, the exhibition features war photography that was repeatedly printed in the magazine and
became classic war photography images. Key editorials and articles from Soviet Photo introduce the
unprecedented phenomenon of soviet amateur photography with its emergence at Leningrad Photo club in
Vyborg Palace of Culture, peak at Moscow photo club Novator and subsequent evolution in the regions and
soviet republics (Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Lithuania, Latvia, etc).
The exhibition invites to engage into the discussion on Soviet and Russian photography of the 1920s1990s, to gain insight into aesthetic and subject-related diversity of photography of the time, which in an
extraordinary manner manifested itself through the magazine. The anniversary exhibition features vintage
photographs from The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography collection, photographs from private
collections, magazine covers, key editorials.
Press secretary: Jane Borovkova, pr2@lumiere.ru
Curator: Ekaterina Zueva, Yana Iskakova
Private view – May, 13 at 7 p.m.