Alexander Rodchenko is a pioneer of Soviet photography. Legendary Soviet photographer Alexander Rodchenko. Rodchenko and photography

01.08.2019

Rodchenko was called the genius of Soviet propaganda in the mid-20th century. He was a talented, creative master. Alexander Rodchenko stood at the origins of the avant-garde in the USSR. It was he who asked latest standards advertising and design, destroyed old ideas about graphics and posters, and created a new course in this direction. Behind all sides of this creative personality There is such a line as photography, and not everyone knows about it. Rodchenko knew how to catch interesting points and create unique masterpieces.

More than a photographer

In the 20s, Alexander Rodchenko began to create his first photographic works. He was a unique photographer. At that time he worked as an artist-designer in the theater. He had a need to capture his work on film, and so he discovered a new art that completely captivated and enchanted him. Alexander Rodchenko's main contribution to the development of the photo reportage genre was the first multiple photographs of a person in action. This is how he collected documentary-figurative ideas about the models. His unusual photo reports were published in all popular central publications: in the magazines "Ogonyok", "Pioneer", "Radio Listener", "30 Days", in the newspaper "Evening Moscow".

Alexander Rodchenko. Photography is art

Photographer Rodchenko’s calling card was photographs taken with different angles(perspective). With these photographs the master went down in history. The images were taken from an angle that is unusual for perception, often from a unique, unusual point. The perspective to a certain extent distorts and changes the perception of an ordinary object. For example, the photographs taken by the artist from the roofs are so dynamic that it seems as if the image is about to start moving. It is not surprising that such a series of photographs was first published in the magazine “Soviet Cinema”.

Rodchenko set such canons in the art of photography that have taken pride of place in modern photography textbooks. For example, when performing a series of portraits of Mayakovsky, the photographer completely departed from the standards of conventional studio photography. But in the 30s, some of his experiments seemed too bold to the authorities. The photograph from the bottom of the famous "Pioneer Trumpeter" seemed bourgeois to some. The boy from this angle looked like a sort of “well-fed” bad boy. The artist here did not enter the framework of proletarian photography.

Alexander Rodchenko, biography

In 1891, Alexander Rodchenko was born in St. Petersburg into a simple, humble family. My father's name was Mikhail Mikhailovich (1852-1907), he served as a theater props man. Mother, Olga Evdokimovna (1865-1933), worked as a laundress. Due to prevailing circumstances, in 1902 the family moved to a permanent place of residence in the city of Kazan. Here Alexander received his first education at the Kazan parish primary school.

Alexander Rodchenko (USSR, 1891-1956) was a member of the Zhivsculptarch society since 1919. In 1920, he was a member of the Rabis development group. In the 1920-1930s he was a teacher as a professor at the metalworking and woodworking faculties. He taught students to design multifunctional objects and achieve expressive forms by identifying design features.

Photo activities

In the 20s, Rodchenko was actively involved in photography. To illustrate Mayakovsky's books "About This" in 1923, he used photomontage. Since 1924, he became known for his psychological portraits of friends, relatives and acquaintances ("Portrait of a Mother", Mayakovsky, Tretyakov, Brik). In 1925-1926 he published perspective photographs from the series “House of Mosselprom”, “House on Myasnitskaya”. He published articles about the art of photography, where he promoted a documentary view of the world around him, defended the need to use new methods, mastering different points of view (lower, upper) in the photo. Participated in the exhibition "Soviet Photography" in 1928.

Alexander Rodchenko became a famous master of photography thanks to the use of different angles in photography. In 1926-1928 he worked as a production designer in cinema ("Moscow in October", "Journalist", "Albidum"). In 1929, based on Glebov's play, he designed the play "Inga" at the Theater of the Revolution.

30s

Alexander Rodchenko, whose work seemed to bifurcate in the 30s, on the one hand, is engaged in propaganda of socialist realism, on the other, he is trying to preserve his own freedom. Its symbol is the photo reports about the circus created in the late 30s. During this period he returned to easel painting. In the 40s, Rodchenko painted decorative compositions made in abstract expressionism.

The 30s are marked by the transition from early comprehensive works to the specific creativity of Soviet propaganda, which are completely imbued with revolutionary enthusiasm. In 1933, the photographer was sent to the construction site of the White Sea Canal, where he took many reportage photographs (about two thousand), but only thirty are known now.

Later, together with his wife Stepanova, the albums “First Cavalry”, “15 Years of Kazakhstan”, “Soviet Aviation”, “Red Army” were designed. Since 1932, Rodchenko was a member of the Union of Artists. In 1936 he took part in an exhibition of masters of Soviet photography. Since 1928, he regularly sent his works to exhibitions in salons in France, the USA, Great Britain, Spain and other countries.

Alexander Rodchenko, recalling his childhood, says that when he was 14 years old, he sadly wrote in his diary about the uncertainty in life. He was sent to study medicine, and he longingly dreamed of becoming a real artist. In the end, at the age of 20, Alexander quit medicine and went to study at art school. In 1916, he would be drafted into the army, and yet practicing medicine would benefit him. He will be appointed manager of the sanitary train instead of being sent to the front.

In the 1920s, Rodchenko and his wife organized creative union. They developed new life", combined many art technician and arts. Together we designed a new clothing model - now it’s a jumpsuit. It was intended to hide gender differences between future generations and to praise labor activity Soviet man. In 1925, the master’s first and last trip abroad took place; he was sent to Paris. There he designed the USSR department during the International Exhibition.

Last years of life

After the war, Alexander Rodchenko fell into depression; the entries in his diary are only pessimistic. In 1947, he complains that life is becoming more boring every day. They stopped providing work for him and Varvara. A period of lack of money began. As the author himself said, all that remains is to pray to God. In 1951, Rodchenko was even expelled from the Union of Artists, although four years later he was reinstated, but it was too late, the artist stopped creating. He died in 1956, December 3. Alexander Rodchenko was buried at the Donskoye Cemetery.

Mayakovsky's associate in advertising
December 5 marked the 125th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Rodchenko

Alexander Rodchenko

Alexander Rodchenko “Pioneer”, 1930

Painting

In 1916, Rodchenko moved to Moscow, met his wife and colleague Varvara Stepanova and actively began to participate in avant-garde exhibitions together with Wassily Kandinsky, Vladimir Tatlin, and El Lissitzky. At first, his activity as a non-objective artist was limited to easel painting with a compass and ruler, largely derived from the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich.

Alexander Rodchenko

2. Alexander Rodchenko “Red. Yellow. Blue", 1921

He experiments with plane and texture, shape and color, consistently turning his works into a geometric drawing - even more strict than Malevich's.

3. Artist, photographer Alexander Rodchenko, director Vsevolod Meyerhold, poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, composer Dmitry Shostakovich (from left to right)

4. Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Mayakovsky “There have never been better nipples,” 1923

5. Alexander Rodchenko “Kinoglaz”, 1924

Because of such rationalization, Nikolai Khardzhiev, a writer, historian and one of the largest researchers of the Russian avant-garde, certified Rodchenko as follows: “He appeared in 1916, when everything had already taken place, even Suprematism... He came with everything ready-made and understood nothing.” .

Nevertheless, in 1921, at the exhibition “5 × 5 = 25”, he showed the triptych “Smooth Color” of three monochrome canvases (yellow, red, blue) and, thus, broke with non-objective painting, divorced from reality, in order to move on to “industrial art”, which was supposed to organically merge into the collective life of the new society.

9. Alexander Rodchenko “Workers’ Club”, 1925

Constructivism

The “Constructivist Group” arose in February 1921 on the initiative of the artist and art theorist Alexei Gan, as well as Rodchenko and Stepanova. A year earlier, Rodchenko began giving lectures at VKHUTEMAS (Higher State Art and Technical Workshops) and supervising student projects - among them, for example, a bus station and universal exhibition equipment.

10. Alexander Rodchenko. By the phone. 1928

11. Alexander Rodchenko. Vladimir Mayakovsky. 1924

12. Alexander Rodchenko. Pedestrians. 1928

For him, this was a turn to design, interior sketches, printing works and samples of completely new furniture, which were conceived by constructivists as a way to overcome the individualism of bourgeois art and subordinate their art to the interests of a socialist society.

13. Alexander Rodchenko “He is not a citizen of the USSR who is not a shareholder of Dobrolyota”, 1923

Advertising posters and photomontage

One of Rodchenko’s first works on the topic of the day, which were called upon to “rebuild” the consciousness of Soviet people, was a poster: “He is not a citizen of the USSR who is not a shareholder of Dobrolyota.” Since 1923, in tandem with Vladimir Mayakovsky, he has signed advertising posters: “Advertising designer Mayakovsky - Rodchenko.” Among them joint work- Mosselprom emblem, advertising for the Molodaya Gvardiya magazine, GUM and Rubber Trust.

14. Alexander Rodchenko. Portrait of a mother. 1924

15. Alexander Rodchenko. "Wildflowers" 1937

16. Alexander Rodchenko. Sukharevsky Boulevard. 1928

Thanks to unexpected angles, catchy images and slogans and voluminous text, a fundamentally new language mass communication, combining Rodchenko’s graphics with Mayakovsky’s poetic texts.

17. Alexander Rodchenko “Composition”. 1917

18. Alexander Rodchenko “Dance”. 1915

At the same time, in 1923, Rodchenko began to use photomontage to illustrate books. One of the most expressive images of this practice was the first edition of Mayakovsky’s poem “About This,” for which Rodchenko composed collages of photographs and newspaper headlines, while playing with layout and font.

19. Alexander Rodchenko “Pioneer”, 1930

Photo

Today, Rodchenko’s photographs are associated with laconic forms, clear lines and clear images. They are sold at auctions and exhibited in museums. However, Rodchenko took his first photographs in 1924 to gather material for photomontages.

20. Alexander Rodchenko " White circle" 1918

21. Alexander Rodchenko

Since 1926, he begins to experiment with angles, distorting the image and emphasizing unusual details, writes articles about design thinking and a documented accurate view of the world (“Ways modern photography", "Against a summarized portrait for a snapshot" and "Major illiteracy or minor disgusting"). His photo reports are published in “Evening Moscow”, magazines “30 days”, “Ogonyok” and “Radio Listener”. Shooting a person in action, angle shots, psychological portraits steel business card Rodchenko the photographer.

On the 125th anniversary of his birthAlexandra Rodchenko(1891-1956) - constructivist, photographer and one of the first designers in the USSR, whose experiences have now taken shape as cultural archetypes, Gazeta.Ru recalls the main milestones of the artist’s work.

Alexander Rodchenko is as much a symbol of Soviet photography as Vladimir Mayakovsky is of Soviet poetry. Western photographers, from the founders of the Magnum photo agency to modern stars like Albert Watson, still use the techniques Rodchenko introduced into the photographic medium. In addition, if it were not for Rodchenko, there would be no modern design, which was greatly influenced by his posters, collages and interiors. Unfortunately, the rest of Rodchenko’s work has been forgotten - and yet he not only took photographs and drew posters, but was also involved in painting, sculpture, theater and architecture.

Anatoly Skurikhin. Alexander Rodchenko at the construction of the White Sea Canal. 1933© Museum “Moscow House of Photography”

Alexander Rodchenko. Funeral of Vladimir Lenin. Photo collage for the magazine “Young Guard”. 1924

Alexander Rodchenko. The building of the newspaper "Izvestia". 1932© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum

Alexander Rodchenko. Spatial photo animation “Self-Beasts”. 1926© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum

Rodchenko and art

Alexander Rodchenko was born in St. Petersburg in 1891 into the family of a theater prop maker. Since childhood, he was involved in the world of art: the apartment was located directly above the stage, through which you had to pass to go down to the street. In 1901 the family moved to Kazan. First, Alexander decides to study to become a dental technician. However, he soon abandoned this profession and became a volunteer student at the Kazan Art School (he could not enter there due to the lack of a certificate of secondary education: Rodchenko graduated from only four classes of the parochial school).

In 1914, futurists Vladimir Mayakovsky, David Burlyuk and Vasily Kamensky came to Kazan. Rodchenko went to their evening and wrote in his diary: “The evening ended, and the excited, but in different ways, audience slowly dispersed. Enemies and fans. The latter are few. Clearly, I was not only a fan, but much more, I was a follower.” This evening became a turning point: it was after it that a volunteer student at the Kazan Art School, keen on Gauguin and the World of Art, realized that he wanted to connect his life with futuristic art. In the same year, Rodchenko met his future wife, a student of the same Kazan art school, Varvara Stepanova. At the end of 1915, Rodchenko, following Stepanova, moved to Moscow.

Rodchenko, Tatlin and Malevich

Once in Moscow, through mutual friends Alexander met Vladimir Tatlin, one of the leaders of the avant-garde, and he invited Rodchenko to take part in the futuristic exhibition “Shop”. Instead of an entry fee, the artist is asked to help with the organization - selling tickets and telling visitors about the meaning of the works. At the same time, Rodchenko met Kazimir Malevich, but, unlike Tatlin, he did not feel sympathy for him, and Malevich’s ideas seemed alien to him. Rodchenko is more interested in Tatlin’s sculptural paintings and his interest in design and materials than Malevich’s thoughts on pure art. Later, Rodchenko would write about Tatlin: “I learned everything from him: attitude to the profession, to things, to material, to food and all life, and this left a mark for the rest of my life... Of all the modern artists I have met, there is no equal to him".

Kazimir Malevich. White on white. 1918 MoMA‎

Alexander Rodchenko. From the series “Black on Black”. 1918© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / MoMA‎

In response to Malevich’s “White on White,” Rodchenko wrote a series of works, “Black on Black.” These seem to be similar works solve opposite problems: with the help of monochrome, Rodchenko uses the texture of the material as a new property pictorial art. Developing the idea of a new art inspired by science and technology, for the first time he uses “non-artistic” tools - a compass, a ruler, a roller.

Rodchenko and photomontage

Alexander Rodchenko. "Exchange everyone." Project cover for a collection of constructivist poets. 1924 Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum

Rodchenko was one of the first in the Soviet Union to recognize the potential of photomontage as a new art form and began experimenting with this technique in the field of illustration and propaganda. The advantage of photomontage over painting and photography is obvious: due to the absence of distracting elements, a laconic collage becomes the most vivid and accurate way of non-verbal transmission of information.

Working in this technique will bring Rodchenko all-Union fame. He illustrates magazines, books, and creates advertising and propaganda posters.

“Advertising designers” Mayakovsky and Rodchenko

Rodchenko is considered one of the ideologists of constructivism, a movement in art where form completely merges with function. An example of such constructivist thinking is advertising poster"Books" 1925. The basis is taken from El Lissitzky’s poster “Beat the Whites with a Red Wedge”, while Rodchenko leaves only a geometric design from it - a triangle invading the space of a circle - and fills it with a completely new meaning. He is no longer an artist-creator, he is an artist-designer.

Alexander Rodchenko. Poster "Lengiz: books on all branches of knowledge." 1924 TASS

El Lissitzky. Poster “Beat the whites with a red wedge!” 1920 Wikimedia Commons

In 1920, Rodchenko met Mayakovsky. After a rather curious incident related to the advertising campaign “” (Mayakovsky criticized Rodchenko’s slogan, thinking that it was written by some second-rate poet, thereby seriously offending Rodchenko), Mayakovsky and Rodchenko decide to join forces. Mayakovsky comes up with the text, Rodchenko is in charge of the graphic design. The creative association “Advertising-constructor “Mayakovsky - Rodchenko”” is responsible for the 1920s posters of GUM, Mosselprom, Rezinotrest and other Soviet organizations.

Creating new posters, Rodchenko studied Soviet and foreign photographic magazines, cutting out everything that might be useful, communicated closely with photographers who helped him shoot unique subjects, and eventually, in 1924, bought his own camera. And he instantly becomes one of the main photographers in the country.

Rodchenko the photographer

Rodchenko began taking photographs quite late, being already an established artist, illustrator and teacher at VKHUTEMAS. He transfers the ideas of constructivism into new art, showing space and dynamics in the photograph through lines and planes. From the array of these experiments, two important techniques can be identified that Rodchenko discovered for world photography and which are still relevant today.

Alexander Rodchenko. Sukharevsky Boulevard. 1928© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum

Alexander Rodchenko. Pioneer trumpeter. 1932© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum

Alexander Rodchenko. Ladder. 1930© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum

Alexander Rodchenko. Girl with a Leica camera. 1934© Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum

The first step is angles. For Rodchenko, photography is a way to convey new ideas to society. In the era of airplanes and skyscrapers, this new art should teach us to see from all sides and show familiar objects from unexpected points of view. Rodchenko is particularly interested in top-down and bottom-up perspectives. This one of the most popular techniques today became a real revolution in the twenties.

The second technique is called diagonal. Even in painting, Rodchenko identified the line as the basis of any image: “The line is the first and last, both in painting and in any design in general.” It is the line that will become the main structural element in his further creativity— photo-montage, architecture and, of course, photography. Most often, Rodchenko will use the diagonal, since, in addition to the structural load, it also carries the necessary dynamics; a balanced, static composition is another anachronism that he will actively fight against.

Rodchenko and socialist realism

In 1928 in the magazine " Soviet photo“A slanderous letter is published, accusing Rodchenko of plagiarizing Western art. This attack turned out to be a harbinger of more serious troubles - in the thirties, avant-garde leaders were condemned one after another for formalism. Rodchenko was very upset by the accusation: “How can it be, I am with all my soul for Soviet power, I work with faith and love for it with all my might, and suddenly we are wrong,” he wrote in his diary.

After this work, Rodchenko again falls into favor. Now he is among the creators of a new, “proletarian” aesthetics. His photographs of physical culture parades are the apotheosis of the socialist realist idea and shining example young painters (among his students is Alexander Deineka). But since 1937, relations with the authorities went wrong again. Rodchenko does not accept the totalitarian regime that is coming into force, and his work no longer brings him satisfaction.

Rodchenko in the 1940-50s

Alexander Rodchenko. Acrobatic. 1940 Archive of Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova / Moscow House of Photography Museum

After the war, Rodchenko created almost nothing - he only designed books and albums together with his wife. Tired of politics in art, he turns to pictorialism, a movement that appeared in photography back in the eighties of the 19th century. Pictorialist photographers tried to get away from the nature-like nature of photography and shot with special soft-focus lenses, changing the light and shutter speed to create a picturesque effect and bring photography closer to painting.. He is interested in classical theater and circus - after all, these are the last areas where politics does not determine the artistic program. The New Year’s letter from his daughter Varvara says a lot about Rodchenko’s mood and creativity at the end of the forties: “Daddy! I would like you to draw something to go with your works this year. Don’t think that I want you to do everything in “socialist realism”. No, so that you can do as you can do. And every minute, every day I remember that you are sad and don’t draw. I think you would be more fun then and know that you can do these things. I kiss you and wish you a Happy New Year, Mulya.”

In 1951, Rodchenko was expelled from the Union of Artists and only four years later, thanks to the endless energy of Varvara Stepanova, he was reinstated. Alexander Rodchenko died in 1956, just a short time before his first photographic and graphic exhibition, also organized by Stepanova.

The material was prepared jointly with the Multimedia Art Museum for the exhibition “Experiences for the Future”.

Sources

Rodchenko A. Revolution in photography.
Rodchenko A. Photography is an art.
Rodchenko A., Tretyakov S. Self-beasts.
Rodchenko A. M. Experiments for the future.
Visiting Rodchenko and Stepanova!

As they say, a talented person is talented in everything.

Legendary Soviet photographer, artist, sculptor. The founder of constructivism, design and advertising in the USSR. Today we will tell you about Alexandra Rodchenko (1891 - 1956).

Most people will immediately name their favorite artist, and most people will name their favorite writer, too, but they will most likely think about the answer to the question about their favorite photographer. Few people know Alexander Rodchenko by name, but there is not a person who has not seen his photographs.

In his works he was ahead of his time, for which he was often criticized. Thus, one of his most famous photographs, “Pioneer Trumpeter,” was at one time called politically incorrect. The boy in the photo turned out to be too plump, and this did not correspond to Soviet propaganda.

Alexander Rodchenko did not adhere to the rules and created his own own style. His most famous shots, shot in defiance of all the canons of photography of that time, are the documentary work “Portrait of a Mother,” which has become a classic of photography close up, and a series of portraits of Vladimir Mayakovsky, which violated all the rules of pavilion photography.

“You hang around an object, a building or a person and think, how to remove it: this way, this way or that way?... Everything is old... This is how we were taught, raising us for millennia different paintings, see everything according to the rules of grandma’s composition. But we need to revolutionize people, to see from all points and under all lighting.”
A. Rodchenko. Notebook LEFa. 1927

No less famous is the master’s work “Girl with a Watering Can.” It shows his student Evgenia Lemberg. Photo received global recognition, and in 1994 was sold at Christie's for £115,000.

The photographer became seriously interested in the genre of sports photography, in which he achieved great success. Shooting unusual angles became his calling card, and in shots taken in sports arenas, he was able to make full use of this technique. Even the most ordinary stories became memorable and vivid.

Alexander Rodchenko is a multifaceted person who achieved success in everything he undertook. He worked on the design of the Pittoresk cafe in Moscow, creating a series of graphic, pictorial and spatial abstract geometric minimalist works. He also took part in exhibitions of the Russian avant-garde, for example, in the “Shop” exhibition organized by , and architectural competitions.

In 1918, Alexander Rodchenko wrote painting“Black on black”, based only on texture. Later, lines and dots appeared in his paintings, which became independent pictorial forms. He was an innovator in art, and viewed his work as a global experiment.

Alexander Rodchenko became one of the founders Soviet constructivism. He proved himself not only in painting, but also in many other areas of art. The artist created geometric sculptures from various materials.

Rodchenko also made a name for himself as a designer of furniture and clothing, and was the author of scenery for cinema and theater.

A noticeable mark on his work was left by his collaboration with the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky: he illustrated some of his books and magazines “LEF” and “New LEF”, and made a series of advertising posters with him.

Ideology Soviet art was transformed after I.V. Stalin came to power. Free spirits The state actively suppressed avant-garde artists. At this time, Alexander Rodchenko left painting and began to engage only in photojournalism. His photographs personified the highest achievements of the Stalinist era, ceremonial parades, public construction projects, huge industrial enterprises, life of Soviet collective farms.

These were pictures of victories and achievements, and ordinary life the country of that time remained behind the scenes, since photojournalists were strictly forbidden to depict anything that cast the slightest shadow on the government and its practices.

In the 1920s, Alexander Rodchenko made a huge contribution to the development of European photography and photomontage. He left a great creative legacy that influenced many artists and photographers.

In our time, his work is continued by Alexander Nikolaevich Lavrentyev, the artist’s grandson. He teaches at the Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia named after A. Rodchenko and the Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Sciences, and is also an editor and consultant scientific works about your famous ancestor.

Alexander Rodchenko - Life and photography

Pioneer trumpeter 1930

Alexander Rodchenko was born in 1891 into the family of a theater prop maker. His father did not at all want his son to follow in his footsteps, and tried with all his might to give the boy a “real” profession. In his autobiographical notes, Rodchenko recalled: “In Kazan, when I was 14 years old, I climbed onto the roof in the summer and wrote a diary in small books, full of sadness and melancholy from my uncertain situation, I wanted to learn to draw, but I was taught to become a dental technician...” Future photographer The avant-garde artist even managed to work for two years in the technical prosthetic laboratory of the Kazan dental school of Dr. O.N. Nathanson, but at the age of 20 he left his medical studies and entered the Kazan Art School, and then the Moscow Stroganov School, which opened the way for him to independent creative life. Rodchenko did not immediately turn to photography.

Self-portrait
In the mid-1990s, he was actively involved in painting, and his abstract compositions took part in many exhibitions. A little later, he showed his talent in a new field, taking part in the design of the Pittoresk cafe in Moscow, and for some time he even abandoned painting, turning to “industrial art” - a movement that in its extreme form denied art and addressed purely to the creation of utilitarian objects.

Summer day 1929

In addition, in the late tenths and early twenties, the young artist participated a lot in public life: he became one of the organizers of the trade union of painters, served in the fine arts department of the People's Commissariat for Education, and headed the Museum Bureau. Rodchenko’s first steps in the field of photography date back to the early 20s, when he, at that time a theater artist and designer, was faced with the need to capture his work on film. Having discovered a new art for himself, Rodchenko was completely fascinated by it - however, in photography, as in painting, at that time he was more interested in “pure composition”, exploring how objects located on a plane influence each other.

Shukhov Tower.1929

It is worth noting that Rodchenko was luckier as a photographer than as an artist - the former was recognized faster. Soon enough, the young photographer created a reputation for himself as an innovator, producing a series of collages and montages using his own photographs and magazine clippings. Rodchenko’s works were published in the magazines “Soviet Photo” and “New LEF”, and Mayakovsky invited him to illustrate his books. Rodchenko’s photomontages, used in the design of the edition of Mayakovsky’s poem “About This” (1923), literally became the beginning of a new genre.

Portrait of a Mother 1924

Since 1924, Rodchenko increasingly turned to classical areas photography - portrait and reportage - however, here too the restless innovator did not allow established traditions to dictate his terms. The photographer created his own canons, which ensured his work a place of honor in any modern photography textbook. As an example, we can cite a series of portraits of Mayakovsky, in which Rodchenko discarded all the traditions of pavilion photography, or “Portrait of a Mother” (1924), which became a classic of close-up photography.

Vladimir Mayakovsky 1924

The photographer also made a great contribution to the development of the photo reportage genre - it was Alexander Rodchenko who was the first to use multiple photographs of a person in action, which allows one to obtain a collective documentary-figurative idea of the model. Rodchenko’s photo reports were published in a number of central publications: the newspaper “Evening Moscow”, the magazines “30 days”, “Dash”, “Pioneer”, “Ogonyok” and “Radio Listener”. However, Rodchenko’s real “calling card” was his perspective photographs – the artist went down in history with photographs taken at an unusual angle, from an unusual and often unique point, in a perspective that distorts and “revitalizes” ordinary objects. For example, the photographs taken by Rodchenko from the roofs (top angle) are so dynamic that it seems as if the figures of people are about to begin to move, and the camera will float over the city, revealing a breathtaking panorama - it is not surprising that the first angle photographs of buildings (the series “House on Myasnitskaya”, 1925 and “House of Mosselprom”, 1926) were published in the magazine “Soviet Cinema”.

Mosselprom House 1932

Around the same time, Rodchenko’s debut as a photography theorist dates back to: from 1927, in the magazine “New LEF”, of which he was a member of the editorial board, the artist began publishing not only photographs, but also articles (“On the photo in this issue”, “ Ways of modern photography”, etc.) However, for the beginning of the 30s, some of his experiments seemed too bold: in 1932, the opinion was expressed that Rodchenko’s famous “Pioneer Trumpeter”, shot from the lowest point, looked like a “well-fed bourgeois”, and he the artist does not want to restructure himself in accordance with the tasks of proletarian photography. Filming the construction of the White Sea Canal in 1933 really forced Rodchenko to rethink in many ways the relationship between art and reality, which seemed less and less inspiring to the artist. It was at this time that in Rodchenko’s photographs, the unprecedented construction sites of socialism and the new Soviet reality began to give way to the special world of sports and the magical reality of the circus. Rodchenko dedicated to the latter a whole series unique series - the pictures were to be included in a special issue of the magazine “USSR at Construction”. Unfortunately, the issue was signed for publication five days before the start of the Great Patriotic War and never saw the light of day. IN post-war years Rodchenko worked a lot as a designer and returned to painting, although he still often turned to his favorite genre of photo reporting. His “non-standard” creativity still raised certain doubts in official circles - the disagreements between the artist and the authorities ended in 1951 with the exclusion of Rodchenko from the Union of Artists. However, just three years later, in 1954, the artist was reinstated in this organization. On December 3, 1956, Alexander Rodchenko died in Moscow from a stroke and was buried at the Donskoye Cemetery.