<TITLE: Russian Visual Culture
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: humanities
DISCIPLINE: Slavonic philology
EVENT TYPE: lecture
FILE ID: ULEC050
NOTES: 

RECORDING DURATION: 51 min 37 sec

RECORDING DATE: 17.3.2005

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 20

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 2

S1: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Russian; ACADEMIC ROLE: senior staff; GENDER: male; AGE: 31-50

S2: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Russian; ACADEMIC ROLE: undergraduate; GENDER: male; AGE: 17-23

SU: unidentified speaker

SS: several simultaneous speakers>


<S1> so please er do do not forget to return your er feedback forms and perhaps we'll start not not , attendance is not so so impressive today but anyway we'll start <P:09> good afternoon , let's get started this is our last meeting er it will be rather informal meeting we'll exchange views and opinions rather than i just er , give you , information on special subjects or authors et cetera et cetera but before that i want to give you a short , er , review of what we did yesterday then we will continue with the er , photography in russia after 1990s and then we'll do we'll have an experiment we'll do something creative we shall create our own posters in whatever style you would prefer russian avant-garde style malevich kandinsky or . rodchenko and so on and so on <PREPARING OVERHEAD PROJECTOR, P:30> and there will be a little exhibition so i will give you opinion you opinions about the pictures the posters you will see there , or is it too dark <SU> no </SU> maybe too dark you won't be able to write (xx) . isn't that it <PREPARING POWERPOINT, P:29> the (xx) do not forget to return , feedback forms right so first yesterday we talked about the the development the ways of the russian photography how it developed from photojournalism from propaganda to analytical art to sort of er art criticism and the last name we discussed was nikolai bakharev and his series of portraits in russian province and we compared bakharev especially bakharev's nudes with , well known western er (glance) magazine photographer , helmut newton , we found some sim- similarities like both would er use lots of nudity take pictures of beautiful objects beautiful women but and both would like to shock the audience in some way , as newton created his , non- er existent style non-existent world adding moving his models u- up from everyday life bakharev in his turn he just put his objects in very regular very provincial very boring environment , and er what we'll do , we'll look at some other names <PREPARING POWERPOINT, P:09> mhm i didn't connect it <P 1:04> okay what else did we we learn we learned that er in 1970s and in 1980s the development of camera class was of big importance for the level of a russian art photography actually russian art photography emerged with russian camera class when er talented people started to take part in exhibitions er to publish their work and even to take part and er winning awards in international exhibitions and nikolai bakharev was just one of such talented er photographers we also said we also discussed the importance of er special photographic magazines such as revue fotografie from the czech republic and a soviet er magazine sovetskoe foto although western er magazines er were not available so we were kept out of the development of world photography and of course in interest that we may say that there may be some positive in this because er people er made their own way and also some negative er results negative er consequences that we were cut off er er the world the development of world photography <P:10> so let's look at some other directions , in new russian photography <PREPARING POWERPOINT, P:33, SHOWING PHOTOGRAPHS ON SCREEN> so these were typical bakharev portraits of , average people in the average environment <P:13> and this is helmut newton we see how he creates some something unusual something bizarre but anyway something posh something different from real life and this is nikolai bakharev ordinary people with their ordinary er passions desires and interests another author i i would like to discuss with is yevgeni mohorev from st petersburg actually st petersburg's school o- of photography is very interesting to study there are interesting names such as starting with boris smelov or alexander sokolov natalia (snigerievskaya) er but er chezhin et cetera w- we we'll if we have time we'll talk more about photography of st petersburg er this artist yevgeni mohorev he's a bit scandalous as well because his idea is to show the world of teenagers especially those abandoned it like is it's like different from adult world er the world which has something er s- er s- some secrecy something miraculous in it er although in some respect you may find something which is not very attractive in his approach and it's very individually and he he takes pictures of children no adults and sometimes the environment he takes er he photographs children er a bit dark gloomy some abandoned flats staircases et cetera et cetera as if er the adults they don't exist as these children and teenager live their own life <P:06> again he's quite recognised in the world he his works have have been published in most recognised photographic magazines . and er it it is if you know the code you may understand what is it about but if you are say er old enough then it's quite difficult for me it's quite difficult say to understand this new aesthetics <P:14> something of of freud in mohorev's pictures , i don't like them particularly but he is the name which is being talked about in photographic er you know circles and this now we we're going to compare you remember who is this . it is alexander rodchenko of course his er er view from below and er rodchenko as we know was a a kind of a waiter he he he used lots of experiments and another name in st petersburg photography is andrei chezhin who started to experiment who started to look for new ways in photography , what he did may er basically he would er use very er low quality materials which could be found in soviet er shops or which would be found in somewhere where they were kept for many years and they would he would er use one film and then reload the same film and would photograph on the same film again and then look for some interesting results and this gave him a series of er pictures of st petersburg er er which had big success in different exhibitions and this is a sort of postmodernism in photography and chezhin would be clearly er named as a representative of postmodernism in present day russian photography another name is er galina moskaleva she is not actually russian now she comes from minsk but anyway she belongs to a post-soviet art environment what moskaleva did she er , she uses old negatives er some of them er came from her father some of them she got from some elderly people and she prints them and she colours them and she gets this effect of coloured photography which is half (xx) half er post-modern art and er half kitsch but she gets this effect er about which today in in in this symposium professor (barthes) had told about context she told that present-day art and literature and film suffering lack of context because life in russia changed so dramatically you you you never er it's it's very difficult to make types of life because everything is a mixture and moskaleva she comes back to that epoch where types of life were easily er set and this is a sort of nostalgic series er also had very big success in different exhibitions . so she she combines er film posters and er negatives she makes this combination and gets this nostalgic effect er another two names which again belong to postmodernism in visual arts are natasha and var- valera cherkashins what they do they create huge installations they use newspapers look here newspapers and they enlarge the elements of prints to huge er size they add something they paint over photo- photographs and they make very very big installations and they're quite popular not in russia they're very popular in the west for example these sort of installations may be set in a er bank of america or i- in in in very rich and er you now highly recognised institutions , so they they they were brave enough to experiment with the er so-called soviet er basic stuff so with newspapers old photographs et cetera et cetera and they create something fantastic à la soviet , er natasha and valera cherkashins and here we see example of again of replay or remake er how andrei chezhin i have already mentioned how he plays with classical images er on on the right you see some classical paintings it's a rene magritte and how chezhin makes his pictures which would resemble er classical paintings or er photography this is well-known photograph of el lissitzky er a portrait of osip brick er official husband of lilia brick we remember from that poster <FOREIGN>  pokupaite knigi </FOREIGN> and er osip brick was an editor of LEF magazine quite popular in 1920s LEF means er <FOREIGN> levyi front </FOREIGN> the er left front , and chezhin creates something similar but this is actually his self-portrait . @@ and you certainly recognise the black square by malevich and chezhin's replica it's the easiest maybe the easiest object to er er to mock . but i i don't think chezhin gets , somewhere very deep in his you know er idea . this is famous picture by man ray when he made er er musical instrument of er female torso and this is andrei chezhin where this pin is a central part of each picture in his series , and salvador dali . but er what i think is more interesting is to follow er another line realistic line analytic line rather than postmodernist line er maybe you've heard this name er josef koudelka who is a famous czech photographer koudelka he he got lots of awards and he was one of those who er photographed er suppression of so-called er the prague spring in 1968 he he later he he he moved he emigrated he lived in france but he has wonderful series from different countries , er and er these are er examples of his pictures this comes from ireland series or pictures from ireland especially this one is very impressive , er and i would say that vladimir sernin i have already mentioned is , we may say that he is a follower of koudelka's line koudelka is k- very interesting person because er on his art er you you may find many interesting articles including cheslav milosh who is a polish nobel prize winner who is a poet but milosh knew koudelka and he has a wonderful foreword to koudelka's album which may be found on the internet and this is vladimir sernin mhm , what was the number <P:07> vladimir sernin , so we see i told you that in ru- in russia you may find that punctum in terms of roland barthes who divided studium and punctum in photography in russia there are so many irregularities so so many er unexpected er views that you may find punctum in in everywhere this is er sernin's picture of flooded er cemetery and this old lady she is visiting er . er a grave of beloved but mhm mhm mhm this whole you know strange situation when cemetery's flooded but she's still coming added adds something something er some drama thi- to this picture er sernin his idea his method he would go to very remote villages he would live with people there he would take lots and lots of pictures and then he comes back er with with he lives not far from moscow he has no television he he lives very simple life and his wife raisa i think he shares his ideas and he never prints his pictures er like cartier-bresson never printed his pictures and his wife does all technical work for him but his work is to photograph and to make choice . this is a picture from er special institution of a men- men- mentally ill people and you know that in russia these institution quite often they are abandoned they have no er you know finance and er er these people er you know have a very precarious life very difficult life and but er sernin uh brings our attention to them he shows that the- there there are suffering around that we shouldn't like er think that only moscow where life is going on <P:07> and this is a a bit of humour er if you read gogol nikolai gogol the dead soul there is an episode when two russian <FOREIGN> muzhiks </FOREIGN> they sit and discuss whether er this single wheel get to to moscow or it won't get to moscow they discuss maybe it would get only to kazan it's so it's difficult russian philosophical discussion about something which is not practical . and er sernin again and again turns our attention to very difficult life in russian countryside er these women they went to collect some woods . or this dramatic situation when er a horse er fell down <P:07> and this is irina li- li- er lisakova er a photograph from a very good book i i would recommend you if you er i- if if you read russian but even if i- if you you don't read russian anyway it's excellent book it's called photo master if you want to learn photography if you want to develop your photographic er reception and skills this book by svetlana pozharskaya , pozharskaya . <WRITING ON BLACKBOARD> and the title is . photo master . er valery schekoldin we have already seen valery schekoldin very brave person he always went to the most the hottest points of er of of the globe he has er er great series from chechnya i think he went to afghanistan as well and and this is one of the examples from chechnya you know this is tragic clash between religions nations and er er , er political attitudes this is russian village , and you know that er , you know that there is huge animosity in chechnya now between the russians and chechens and it's very difficult to stop and but schekoldin he doesn't take anyone's point of view he shows all the tragedy as it is , so remember that name valery schekoldin , er as to speak about women's photographers there are several very interesting names er like liza faktor of this name may be one of most prominent here the name is ljalja kuznetsova again she shows us series of russian province or even er ka- pictures from kazakhstan or life of gypsies in russia or in kazakhstan especially er er especially successful was her work about gypsies in russia and kazakhstan and these pictures about er from that book . and this is how this book er looks like so if you may find it , er gypsies and wanderers of the central asian steppe , shaking the dust of ages (haperze) it's very serious er publishers house (haperze) it publishes very old and very very er high er level of photography , so ljalja kuznetsova <PREPARING POWERPOINT, P:25> er . so this is a a piece of environment rural environment we may see lenin with some calendar and pictures of er er members of the family but what are you going to do now before we do some creative work and er er before i invite you to see some of my pictures i have plenty of them in er mhm digital format so if you like i i may i may show some of them but some of them are here to er your attention i i want to make step aside and to to er introduce you very special very interesting piece of popular art or folk art which is called postmilitary album or in russian <FOREIGN> (dembinski)album </FOREIGN> you know all russian young men have to go to the army and they have to serve there from two to three years although there are some plans to reduce er er time of military service and as as i mentioned as in criminal world in the army er life is highly structured by informal er hierarchy there is formal hierarchy there are officers then there are like corporals and there are er ordinary soldiers but m- mainly life in army er is structured regarding of , how long have you served so when you just come to the army when you're young soldier you are in the first category which is called the greens you are the green and you have no rights you have to work for others for those who have served more and er you may be bullied you may be deprived of elementary things but this is life and many people regard that army makes real men , then you move on and after a half a year you get to a new category when you have some more freedom and er you have some more time for yourself et cetera unless unt- or until you get the last stage when you have the last half the last six months to serve and then it's like in terms of real life you are a grandfather , and you have plenty of time because you can make all other young soldiers to do some work or plenty of work for you and this hierarchy exists for many generations it's very difficult to break although you know the officers or the government they try to break it because you know it it causes plenty of problems because it's in many respects it's a violation of human rights but it's very difficult to break this you know traditional rule but anyway er er while being in the army er young men they try to collect photographs and they try to make a story of this er period of their life to show later to their girlfriends to their family and usually they remember all the good things when they leave army and let's look at this wonderful example of pop culture which itself is er has its own rules there are some canons and it's interesting to see how these canons are followed . right <P:12> yeah i have er some copies several copies of this <FOREIGN> (dembinski)album(dembinski) </FOREIGN> is derived of a demobilisation er and let's look at this one which is er it look seems more classical , usually er soldiers start to do this to make this when they are on their fourth or their last er stage er of their military service and it should be very good album sometimes they make er er the cover page they cover it with er special you know er structures and this may be er piece of cloth which is the same as in soldiers' er coats <FOREIGN> shilen </FOREIGN> and this is something nicer but anyway it should look very nice , it usually starts with farewell to civil life <FOREIGN> proshchai grazhdanka </FOREIGN> so this guy he he is 18 and it's time to go to the army so he still has er hair and he says bye bye and er <FOREIGN> zdravstvui armiya </FOREIGN> hello the army and usually young soldiers they must have all they must er have all their hair cut for hygienic reasons <P:06> and then start of his service of course he has no time to take pictures or qua- quite often soldiers are not allowed to take pictures and what what he has to his disposal only some postcards that maybe he brought with him or s- some of his friends or family members would send to him so this er this guy he serve he er his er er hometown was petrozavodsk or petroskoi in finnish and he er devotes first pages of his album to er this to his homeland because he has no pictures . and then it's er his first regiment and his first picture as young soldier and you may see that er er all buttons are buttoned and the rules for young soldiers are very strict , they you you mustn't change you you must er keep your hat in a special way et cetera et cetera and you must er er , fasten your belt very tightly . then maybe he was allowed to go to the local town er fo- for for for some time for for a few hours and he got some pictures from there and he shows this is er place where i er have my military service . er then his mother allo- is allowed to come and see him which became more and more like practice er in old times it was very rare that mothers would come to to see their children especially it was tendency that you might be sent very far from your home place say from petrozavodsk to far east but now there is a tendency that soldiers would be sent nearer to to their home places and here that is a special kind of poetry it's a soldier's poetry very simple but very touching . it's kind of military ballads . and this is very important stage and very important picture where er s- young soldiers take oath or give oath this in russian is <FOREIGN> prisyaga </FOREIGN> because they promise to follow all the rules and from this it's a kind of er it may be similar to signing a contract because since you pronounced your oath you live er you belong to military's to the military and m- all the military rule are er applicable now so after that you must obey your commanders your officers you are not civil person anymore and this is regarded very important stage although some people would refuse to give this oath for ideological or religious regions er er reasons because their religion would not allow them say to shoot or to hold er arms weapons they would refuse but now there is a new er er law according to which you may take alternative service which is longer and harder like to work in hospital or in some mental institution but er these people could also be sent like to feed er to work with pigs to work to do some hard work but not er to deal with the weapons . and this is the text of the oath you must learn it by heart before you pronounce but usually you are given a text so you read it , and it is quite typical for all military albums there there are some you know differences but it's quite typical then his first er day off when he's allowed to leave the regiment and it's usually great day because they can eat ice-cream drink lemonade or even something stronger and they meet girls which is maybe one of the main er attractions of the day off indeed he met one , so he got a girlfriend although there is a tradition when before you go to the army you er get all your friends you make a party and usually one's girlfriend is beside and they usually sit like bride and groom and she promises him never had any other relationship never any friendship with anyone else that she would wait for him er for these two years and they make this promise to each other but in life er these promises are often broken and it's actually it's quite terrible when er young soldier has very difficult life then he receives a letter from a friend or a friend's friend saying uh-huh your girlfriend got a new guy and er they they're v- er going together everywhere and it's it's very shocking because his life is very difficult and sometimes there are even suicides er caused by such letters . er and these are typical er army folklore typical poems er , <FOREIGN> kto ne byl tot budet kto byl ne zabudet semsot tridtsat dnei v sapogah </FOREIGN> they usually count the days they're in the army and each soldier usually know how many days are left to er er the last point and if if if i- i am an old soldier i often make young soldiers to learn how many days i have and i- it is quite of a sort of bullying when old soldiers would point any young soldier say tell how many days are left for me in the army and if you fail er er you you get very hard life . and er usually photos with friends it's quite typical for this genre . and er after the first year usually they have more freedom they've got their photocameras and they er photograph their life quite often secretly er when officers don't know and then they put these pictures in their albums and typical er devotion on the backside of photograph . usually er in each regiment there are some people who can draw and these are very popular they usually wouldn't go to do some physical work and what they do they decorate albums for those er grandfathers . so this is a bit of humour <P:05> he- here we see f- soldiers with their officer in the centre but officer they live in their flats and er the rest of the day soldiers are just living their own rules in those barracks . and this is about requirements er er of how quick you should get dressed or undressed it is usually it is said that er you are given 45 seconds to get dressed or to get undressed and the the the there is much of training like old soldiers would train young ones er er er quite often they don't use you know er er words they use a match so if i er light a match so while it's burning you should get undressed and be in bed or get dressed if not y- your your you get punished , and this is a a caricature to to this and the er this what is this this er are er you know dreams of er pre-military life when they had freedom they would listen to rock drink beer er go out with girls and now it's only dreams <P:06> so it's quite interesting topic to di- er to er study to to do research about if we have enough examples samples of these albums we may find kind of some streamlines on the genre er regarding er words or pictures or how they are organised et cetera et cetera , so these are some informal pictures taken i- in the regiment or during their work . so more smiles you you're getting older in military terms there are more smiles on pictures and of course we see it was soviet times still and we see lots of er you know official propaganda in interiors or exteriors of the building . oh even some secret stuff oh we should go quickly <SS> @@ </SS> foreigners should not see these secret objects <SS> @@ </SS> <P:06> so some humour here <P:06> er their officers and then it's time to finish , so this is typical military album and i have another example but i i i don't think we have er enough time today any questions about present-day photography or this special genre of popular culture </S1>
<S2> er where did they keep this album </S2>
<S1> they keep them at home they show them to their parents friends girlfriends and later to their children because these albums are kept for many many years </S1>
<S2> of [what] </S2>
<S1> [so] this guy he's now he's a recognised er doctor he is a surgeon he is head of department in in hospital . but it's interesting also to compare those albums made say in 1950s with those made today how they change how er say canon er is changed </S1>
<S2> but er it's difficult you know er if you have some photographs you you have to go home to put it to album or </S2>
<S1> no no no all albums are made before the soldier leaves the regiment because it's like his er treasure what he gets from the army physically what he gets from the army he gets only his uniform and nothing else and and and this because nothing is allowed to take from army you can't take your gun you can't take a tank but you're you are allowed to take an album . any more questions , no okay now we start our informal part so if you want you can go and er have a coffee but anyway er if you don't let's try to organise our work our idea you work either in groups or individually what we have here plenty of paper black grey yellow red er i have glue we have scissors and your idea to create a poster and this poster is going to be an advertisement for the next year the russian 20th century visual culture special course , feel free to take any sort of paper we have red blue there is a book of russian avant-garde and you can also come here and look at my photographs and i will be happy to discuss them with you so now we start our informal part you can come to me and discuss er and er the book any questions to discuss any points of our course and please do not forget to return the feedback forms you may fold them so i won't look at them because they're anonymous , right </S1>
