Figure 1.-- One of the best known early Soviet photo journalists was Leonid Shokin, whose work hained him some fame in the 1920s. Communist ideological control on photography became even more pronounced in the late-1920s when Stalin gained control of the Party and Soviet state. Stalin strongly promoted the concept of Soviet relism. We begin to see very idealized images of workers, farmers, atthletes, and soldiers. By the 1930s, all Soviet profesional photographic work looked alike. Unlike some photographers sentenced to the Gulag, Shokin was not arrested. Most of his archive, however, was destroyed. He had to watch the NKVD destroy over 5,000 of his images. This Shokin photograph from the 1920s is an early view at a Young Pioneer camp.

Russia was very active in the area of photography. A Russian experiment created a wonderful, if complicated, color photography system. There were also a number crative photographers. Russian photographers participated in important movements of the time, ncluding romanticism, constructivism and the avant-garde, As a result of their work there is a wondrful body of wotk realistically depicting life in Tsarist Russia. The Bolsheviks upon seizing power demanded that photographers create images depicting a true worker's paradice an early use of photogaphy as a propaganda tool. Photographers who wanted to pusue their profession had to comply with Government edicts which were not always consistent. Lenin took a personal interest in propaganda and set out to ensure that photographers worked to promote the Revolution. There was in the 1920s still some room for creative photography. One of the best known early Soviet photo journalists was Leonid Shokin, whose work hained him some fame in the 1920s. Communist ideological control on photography became even more pronounced in the late-1920s when Stalin gained control of the Party and Soviet state. Stalin strongly promoted the concept of Soviet relism. We begin to see very idealized images of workers, farmers, atthletes, and soldiers. By the 1930s, all Soviet profesional photographic work looked alike. Unlike some photographers sentenced to the Gulag, Shokin was not arrested. Most of his archive, however, was destroyed. He had to watch the NKVD destroy over 5,000 of his images. Many of the images of the Soviet Union survived only because they reached the West.

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Created: 2:06 AM 7/24/2008
Last updated: 2:06 AM 7/24/2008