Portraiture and Fantasy
In the Soviet Union, much unofficial photography of female nudes presented the body in sexualized ways without questioning the problematic nature of such representations. In the 1960s and 1970s, women artists and photographers pioneered artistic practices that challenged sexist depictions of feminine bodies. Works like Violeta Bubelyte’s and Māra Brašmane’s self-portraits present ways of engaging with individual subjectivity from the perspective of a nonconformist photographer. The rejection of socialist realist themes and technical perfection are most evident in these portraits. Eschewing then-standard visual conventions of representing Soviet women as idealized heroes and generic workers, these photographers presented their subjects in boldly individualistic terms.
Photography of the 1930s was not entirely without a fantastical dimension. An exaggerated sense of abundance was created by Valentina Kulagina in her compositions for a major Soviet agricultural exhibition in 1938, when in reality, many suffered from starvation, especially in rural Russia and Ukraine. Shown here in studies for monumental photomurals, Kulagina’s works used the technique of photomontage to seamlessly combine photographs of animals and forests into idealized scenes of agrarian life and a material world of plenty.
Ann Tenno (Estonian, b. 1952)
Ann Tenno’s photographs of the feminine body have a meditative and transcendent quality. Best known for her many photography books on Estonian cities and landscapes, Tenno has long been interested in representations of the organic form within the material world. In those publications, she developed a language of symbolic motifs and poetic imagery reflecting the natural environment.
During the 1980s, her photographs focused on the nude figure as the primary subject matter, often with herself as the model. These photographs recall those by her contemporary Francesca Woodman, an American photographer known for her similarly arresting self-portraits. Revealing a powerful creative voice, Tenno’s evocative photographs position the viewer somewhere between fantasy and mundane reality.
Māra Brašmane (Latvian, b. 1944)
In this photograph of her “hippie” sister, Māra Brašmane connects the feminine figure to the natural surroundings within which she is posed. A pioneering nonconformist photographer, Brašmane was one of the few women in Riga’s first photography club, which was founded in 1962.
Brašmane began by taking portraits during the 1960s, shifting to street photography in the 1970s. In this closely framed portrait, we see a figure who is surrounded by foliage in the out-of-focus background. The leaves and flowers in Ieva’s hair are recognizable elements of her natural surroundings.
Like many of her unofficial artist colleagues, Brašmane faced professional obstacles while trying to develop her artistic practice. Her 1972 photograph Cabbages, on view in this exhibition, was barred from public exhibition because a Soviet censor interpreted the photograph as a form of political commentary.
Tatyana Liberman (Russian, b. 1964)
Tatyana Liberman uses light and shadow to place emphasis on the form of her subjects. In her photographs, the human body takes on a sculptural quality with flowing lines that convey a sense of movement. In the images shown here, the curvilinear shape of the model is set against the hard geometric lines of their surroundings so that the soft and hard lines are in contrast with each other.
Liberman explores the structural elements of the body rather than the person themselves; indeed, in her later photographs, the face of the subject is often turned away so that their body becomes the central focus. The dramatic pose of her subject often has a cinematic quality, as though the photograph is a film still plucked from the narrative of a film.
Valentina Kulagina (Russian, 1902–1987)
The artist, designer, and photographer Valentina Kulagina was commissioned by the Soviet state for a prestigious assignment to design large panels for the pavilions of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV), which opened in 1939 in Moscow. Kulagina used the technique of photomontage to create the panels, seamlessly combining photographs of livestock and nature into idealized compositions of agrarian life.
The five black-and-white photomontage compositions in the series were made just a few years after socialist realism had been designated the official visual style of the Soviet Union. Kulagina’s aesthetic choices reflect the particularities of Soviet ideology as the nation began the third Five Year Plan (1938–41) during the repressions of Stalin’s Great Terror (1937–38).
Violeta Bubelyte (Lithuanian, b. 1956)
As a self-portrait artist, Violeta Bubelyte has been using the medium of photography to depict her own nude body for several decades. She emphasizes the body’s position as an object in space, focusing on its formal qualities. These photographs, set in nearly empty spaces, are intentionally absent of context. In this way, Bubelyte draws attention to the relation of the figure to its environment.
Bubelyte is aware of the cultural impulse to sexualize the naked body, but in framing the human form as a geometric shape, she challenges viewers to see it as an authentic expression of the self. Her self-portraits are all numbered rather than named in order to emphasize the impersonal quality of the compositions. By placing her unadorned body in decontextualized spaces, she aims to prompt critical reflection on the commonplace censorship of nudity in art, not unlike the contemporary social media movement #FreeTheNipple.
Y Fatayeva (Ukrainian, dates unknown)
Created using a long exposure on an analog camera, Y Fatayeva’s light paintings convey a sense of motion through their bright streaks of color against a dark, formless background. This technique is achieved by moving either the camera or the light source while keeping the lens shutter open for an extended period of time. The path of light across the exposed film creates the streaks of color that give this technique its name. Rather than capturing a moment in time, this type of photograph records the entire duration of the exposure. Unlike the other photographs in this exhibition, these images are entirely abstract, evoking auditory and other sensations through visual means. Fatayeva’s approach to photography is a groundbreaking example of how nonconformist photographers were experimenting with the medium and pressing beyond its accepted boundaries during the 1980s, a time of upheaval and rapid change in the arts of the Soviet Union.
Left Front of the Arts (LEF) Journal and New Left Front of the Arts (Novyi LEF) Journal
The Left Front of the Arts, frequently referred to by its Russian acronym LEF, was a journal of writing and photography published during the 1920s in Moscow. The journal featured some of the foremost writers, filmmakers, and photographers of the Soviet avant-garde, such as Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Sergei Tretiakov, and Osip Brik. LEF, and the group of cultural producers associated with it, was an important publication for the development of Soviet photography as a medium.
Soviet Photo: Formation of Photo Representation
Women's Journal
Photo Group Assistance
Brigade of Artists
Pioneer Journal
Pioneer was a communist journal featuring illustration, photography, and writing for school-age children and teenagers. It was named after the Young Pioneer organization which was founded in 1922 and modeled on aspects of the Scout organizations in the West, but with a communist focus. The journal has a long publishing history, appearing in print from the 1924 until the present day, although its focus changed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was notable for addressing political and social topics in an intelligent way that was accessible to the youngest members of society. Many Soviet artists and photographers were featured in Pioneer over the years, and the journal was known for its strong visual appeal. The work of women photographers was periodically featured in the journal.
USSR in Construction
USSR in Construction was published during the 1930s as a Soviet propaganda journal to portray the scope of construction and industrialization in the Soviet Union as the nation rapidly industrialized. At various times, the journal was published in foreign languages, including English, French, and German, to reach a global audience. Each issue was devoted to a single project, such as the construction of the White-Sea Baltic Canal, the Moscow Metro, and the 1939 Agricultural Exhibition. It was a lavish oversized publication that was printed in color with multi-page photographic spreads and minimal text. Some of the Soviet Union’s leading artists designed issues of the journal, including women artists such as Varvara Stepanova and Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers.
