International conference: «Art or journalism: photography in modern Russian history»

The main issue of the conference is to study how debates about photography in the socialism epoch influenced the development of photography industry and fine arts in USSR, starting in 1920 and up to Soviet Union demise. The conference organizers want to pay  special attention to the photography development in the regions out of Moscow and Leningrad, and also to the development of Soviet visual art n the postwar period.

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In 1920-1930 Russian photographers-avant-gardists, like Alexander Rodchenko, Eleazar Langman, Gustav Kluitsis created a new photography genre. Photos were to make people feel the industrial progress, which was to form the so-called new proletarian collectivism. In early Soviet visual culture these ideas greatly influenced the conversation about differences between photography and fine arts between art illustration of a «Fact Literature» and photo journalism.

Angelina Lusento, one of the organizers, speaks about the conference:

«We decided to hold a conference that would allow us simultaneously gain a better understanding of the history of Soviet photography and allow us to reckon with one of today's most relevant historic questions, the question of what constitutes a primary source document in the visual age».

 

Conference languages – Russian and English

For all the details: worldwar2@hse.ru

Conference organizers:

Angelina Lusento – researcher, international Center of history and sociology of the Second World war and its consequences, HSE – alucento@hse.ru

Jessika Verneke – researcher, International Center of history and sociology of the Second World War and its consequences, HSE – dverneke@hse.ru