Genres of Visual Storytelling in Photo Editions (1920s–1930s)

Abstract

This article outlines the way such a genre of Russian photography as photo series was formed and developed. It also the role it played in the system of mass communications and journalism in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as considers modern interpretations of this phenomenon in the history of Russian and world photography. The characteristics of certain types of photo series (photo essay, reportage photo, photo series) are featured depending on their visual content and fiction material they relied upon. The authors analyse several professional photographic, cinematographic and literary-artistic journals and magazines such as "Kino-fot", "LEF", "Noviy LEF", "Sovetskoie kino" ('Soviet cinema'), "Proletarskoie foto" ('proletarian photo') and "Sovetskoie foto" ('Soviet photo') to evaluate creative tasks of the photographers, theoretical issues critical reviews. The authors consider several strategies of visual storytelling, on which both the photography program and the materials arrangement on the page are based: production sketch or reportage, the principle of photo observation in space, monitoring and the biographical principle. It is emphasized that the genre of photo series in mass communication is close to design, where issues of visual scenario and publication timing come to the fore and enter the realm of graphic design and photo design. It is a well-known fact that photographers A.M. Rodchenko and B.V. Ignatovich mastered these fields themselves in order to maximize the subject by selecting, arranging and accenting the details.

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