Exhibition of early Russian colour photography opens in London
Rain, Dmitri Baltermants (1960s)
Stalin's Funeral, Dmitri Baltermants (1953)
Student, Ivan Shagin (1950s)
Untitled (Flag), Dmitri Baltermants (1960s)
Photomontage 'Be ready!', Vavara Stepanova (1932)
First year of the military service, P.T. Ivanov (1911)
From the 'Luriki' series, Boris Mikhailov (1971-1985)
Autochrome, Piotr Vedenisov (1909-1914)
1 August 2014
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Nadia Beard
An exhibition of early colour photography in Russia opens today at the Photographer’s Gallery in London, showcasing over 140 works charting more than a century of experimentation with colour photography in Russia. Spanning the 1860s to the 1980s, the retrospective maps the prevailing photographic aesthetics of each decade for over a century, exploring the use of photography as everything from a means of capturing Russia’s vast lands to a tool for Soviet propaganda. Entitled Primrose: Early Colour Photography in Russia, the exhibition features some of the giants of Russian colour photography, including Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, Ivan Shagin and Soviet photojournalist Dmitri Baltermants.
Primrose: Early Colour Photography in Russia will run until 19 October. The exhbition is part of Russia Visualised, a year-long presentation of visual arts and culture programming across London to celebrate the UK-Russia Year of Culture 2014.