{"id":601,"date":"2017-03-06T10:48:13","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T14:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/?p=601"},"modified":"2017-03-06T12:13:18","modified_gmt":"2017-03-06T16:13:18","slug":"photography-and-the-making-of-modern-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/2017\/03\/06\/photography-and-the-making-of-modern-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Photography and the Making of Modern Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An issue of Niva<\/em>, 1904.<\/p>\n

By Mohinee Mukherjee<\/p>\n

February 20, 2017.\u00a0 Oxford, OH.\u00a0 Oberlin College Visiting Assistant Professor of History Dr. Chris Stolarski recently delivered a lecture entitled \u201cThe Performance of Modern Life: Photography and Public Identity in Late Imperial Russia\u201d and led a discussion with students and faculty about the transformative influence of Russian press photography to modernize the Russian population.<\/p>\n

One of Stolarski\u2019s key arguments was that the heightened importance of the photography studio and the growing authority of the photographer attributed to the rise of the technological age in Russia. Stolarski specifically focused on weekly magazines, such as Iskry <\/em>[Sparks<\/em>], Niva <\/em>[Grainfield<\/em>], and Ognek <\/em>[Little Flame<\/em>],<\/em> from 1900 to 1917.<\/p>\n

A significant aspect of press photography at the time, Stolarski said, was highlighting the industrial process of photography. Bylines of photo content not only included the names of photographers but also the technology that was used for photo processing, such as halftone.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublishers constantly revealed the industrial processes for consumers through the magazine,\u201d Stolarski noted.<\/p>\n

As the art of press photography was rising in the early 1900s, many Russians were initially apprehensive of being photographed for publishing. In response, the magazines published articles to draw importance to photography and allay the fear of being a photographer\u2019s subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cSubjects [were encouraged] to feel comfortable to reveal everything, including their [physical] insecurities,\u201d said Stolarski, who added that it was then the photographer\u2019s prerogative to portray or hide these features as needed.<\/p>\n

Another key argument of Stolarski\u2019s was that the Russian illustrative press provided the \u201cmeans of communicating modernity\u201d to the subscribers in Russia while it itself faced challenges of creating a modern image of Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWeekly magazines were priced commodities,\u201d Stolarski said. \u201c[They] were the emporiums of the modern Russian consumer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The magazines published contemporary figure profiles, which often included middle class people. Many of these portraits were cut off at the shoulder, and men wore western-style suits and women wore hats with formal dresses.<\/p>\n

Members of the Duma were also prominent. Many of the magazines included individual portraits and entire spreads showing politicians.\u00a0 Publishers highlighting the Duma system is interesting, because during the waning days of imperial Russia, there was growing public disdain for the monarchy and these \u201cpuppet dumas.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Romanov family was rarely photographed. According to Stolarski, there was strict censorship on how members of the family would be portrayed. On rare occasions, the press published pictures of the Tsar Nicholas II with his daughters and son. Yet, anger directed at the Russian emperor was evident, as Stolarski cited an instance when a picture of the Tsar in a private\u2019s uniform caused uproar.<\/p>\n

A common theme for photographers and publishers was to photograph the magazines\u2019 popularity in Russian society. There were full pages and covers showing writers, editorial meetings, photographers, and people from members of the Duma to peasants reading the magazines in public.<\/p>\n

The reason for this publicity, Stolarski said, came because the press saw itself as a quintessentially modern institution in modern Russian life and wanted to advertise this status.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The magazines] were mediators of public opinion,\u201d Stolarski said. \u201cThey were the actor in the drama of Russian modern life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magazines such as Ogonek<\/em> covered foreign events and culture. Iskry <\/em>published photos titled \u201cFrenchmen in Moscow\u201d in 1910 and \u201cMuslim Faction in the State Duma\u201d in 1907 to illustrate the modern convergence of cultures in society and government.<\/p>\n

While some photos were very ethnographic and depicted stereotypes of Islamic and Asian cultures, the weekly magazines were not representative of the entire Russian population at the time. Despite women being the primary readers of the magazines, women were not featured prominently until 1912.<\/p>\n

Moreover, blurring national boundaries through photography was difficult, Stolarski said, and prominent Russian figures advocated for more uniformity of Russian national identity as depicted in photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe diversity of the empire threatened uniformity that was to be portrayed in \u2018Russian-ness\u2019 visuals,\u201d Stolarski said.<\/p>\n

To subtly hint at a united, modern Russian culture, magazine headlines included adjectives such as \u0440\u0443\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 (\u201cRussian,\u201d denoting ethnic Russians) to describe national armies and Duma, and \u043d\u0430\u0448 (\u201cOur\u201d) to describe diplomats and sportsmen. These adjectives, Stolarski said, had a powerful effect on the Russian population, as they stressed uniformity and national belonging.<\/p>\n

The press was interested in photographs that showed the entire social construction of Russia. A prevailing idea at the time was socialist realism, where the public was \u201cseeing into being.\u201d This concept was similar to suprematism, which also had the purpose of providing viewers with pure feeling after observing a piece of art.<\/p>\n

For many subscribers of the magazines, Stolarski said, these photographs created a sense of \u201caspirational modernity,\u201d which added to the overall photographer mission of creating a modern image of Russia.<\/p>\n

Mohinee Mukherjee is a senior majoring in finance with minors in supply chain management and history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An issue of Niva, 1904. By Mohinee Mukherjee February 20, 2017.\u00a0 Oxford, OH.\u00a0 Oberlin College Visiting Assistant Professor of History Dr. Chris Stolarski recently delivered a lecture entitled \u201cThe Performance of Modern Life: Photography and Public Identity in Late Imperial … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lecture_reviews","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}