PΗΟΤΟ:Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko

Photography was important to Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (5/12/1891-3/12/1956) in his attempt to find new media more appropriate to his goal of serving the Revolution. He first viewed it as a source of preexisting imagery, using it in montages of pictures and text, but later he began to take pictures and evolved an aesthetic of unconventional angles, abruptly cropped compositions, and stark contrasts of light and shadow. His work in both photomontage and photography ultimately made an important contribution to European photography.

By Dimitris Lempesis

Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko enrolled in the Kazan School of Art, where he studied from 1910 to 1914 under Nikolai Feshin and Georgii Medvedev. The young artist quickly absorbed the basic principles of the academic training, earning high praise from his instructors. In 1914, he met Varvara Stepanova, a fellow student. They became life-long partners and artistic collaborators. Rodchenko experienced the influence of Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin, Wassily Kandinsky, and other artists working in abstract style. He was the pupil and assistant of Vladimir Tatlin. His early drawings and paintings followed the developments of Suprematism and Futurism. He worked with a wide variety of media as a decorator, furniture and theatre designer, printer, painter, sculptor, and photographer. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Rodchenko joined the Bolsheviks. He believed in new opportunities for art and became active in many applications of art, illustration, commercial designs, and photography. In 1921 Rodchenko replaced Wassily Kandinsky as Chairman of State Institute of Artistic Culture (INKHUK) and Chairman of Museum Bureau and Russian State Art Acquisitions Commission. In 1921 he co-wrote the Constructivist’s Manifesto. He collaborated with writer and actor Vladimir Mayakovsky, director Vsevolod Meyerhold, composer Dmitri Shostakovich, filmmaker Dziga Vertov, and many others. From 1923-1928 he collaborated with Osip Brik in the Left Front of Art (LEF). A series of Rodchenko’s photographs appeared in the July 1928 issue with the caption, “Taken with the Leica camera using cinema film”. Photographs were not normally identified with the type of camera used, but in this case Rodchenko evidently wanted to make note of the revolutionary new camera and format. In 1925 Rodchenko won four silver medals at Paris International Exhibition. Alexander Rodchenko became one of the founders of Constructivism and Productivism in Russia. His innovations revolutionized the art of still photography. He used his camera as if it was a drawing instrument. He mastered the use of photo-montage, odd angles, wide frames, and photo-series. His way of photographing from unusual and obscured viewpoints, exploring the potential of shadows, opened new dimensions in photo-art. Rodchenko shot his subjects from high above or below angles, to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. “In order to accustom people to seeing from new viewpoints it is essential to take photographs of everyday, familiar objects from absolutely unexpected vantage points and in absolutely unexpected positions”, Rodchenko said. In his Soviet biography, Rodchenko is described as the first Soviet photographer to use a Leica. He also organized many photography exhibitions. Rodchenko was the art director in several Soviet-made films. His most innovative and interesting work was his graphic design and montage works for advertisements and movie posters, which was his major contribution to film-poster art. His posters for such films as “Battleship Potemkin”, “Kinoglaz” and other works, are regarded among the highest achievements in film-poster art. In 1928 Rodchenko wrote a manifesto titled “Against the Synthaetic Portrait, For the Snapshot” in which he argues for the documentary objectivity of photography. “Snapshots allow no one to idealize or falsify Lenin”, wrote Rodchenko. He was soon attacked by Stalinists and was accused of supporting Trotsky and his ideas. His exhibitions were canceled, he was dismissed from major projects and jobs. For many years he was deprived of livelihood. That caused him a depression and other health problems. Rodchenko was officially charged with “bourgeois formalism” and his photography was censored and banned from public shows. However, from 1934-1938, he was commissioned to make several photo-albums for Soviet propaganda, such as: “Belomor-kanal imeni Stalina” and “Krasnaya Armia”. From the late 1930’s to the end of his life he was forced to quit photography amidst the paranoia of Stalinist censorship. He returned to painting sporadically after 1942, made a series of abstract decorative compositions, but his art was ostracized. He lived in poverty and obscurity for the last twenty years of his life. Rodchenko was constantly harassed by officials for his art, his membership in the Union of Soviet Artists was canceled, and he was made an outcast. His membership was restored only in 1954, after the death of Stalin. Rodchenko died of a stroke on 3/12/56, in Moscow.