What is a modern photographer?
We are all photographers today, but with the proliferation of digital photography, her theory is not keeping pace with her practice. In their dialogue, the philosopher Mikhail Kurtov and the artist Yegor Rogalev are looking for a new theory of photography.
Egor Rogalev: Today we are faced with constant difficulties in the photographic description of post-Soviet reality, and indeed reality in general. There is a situation in which the medium and technology in its development and dissemination significantly overtake the possibilities of its own conscious and non-manipulative use. Continue reading
What is conceptual photography?
Here is the first example, a photograph of Jeff Wall, which everyone knows, including because Hokusai is here, plus the familiar Bresson “decisive moment” and the plot-photo story that unfolds before our eyes. It should be noted that this is probably the most understandable conceptual photo of Wall. Here the author flirts with you, as it were, showing you a conceptual photo, the language of which is clear to you, because it is the language of modernist photography that is familiar to us. Its conceptualism is manifested in a dialogue with the history of art – Japanese engraving in combination with the modernist photographic language. The author of this simple work, as it were, invites you to his conceptual journey, in which to understand the rest of his work will be more and more difficult. Continue reading
On the importance of photography in the modern world
Photography is a language that speaks at the level of emotions. Moreover, this language is quite strong. Sometimes it causes such excitement in the viewer, such a storm of feelings that in some cases a person begins to cry, in others – loudly and sincerely, laughing heartily … With the language of photography you can tell the story of not only one particular person, but the whole family, the whole kind, and sometimes even the whole of humanity. A photograph shows us the world as it was the second it was taken. And this sealed world remains with us forever.
1. Photographing tells us about the most important thing for us
If you ask someone what exactly of his things he will save in a critical situation, then most likely they will answer you: Continue reading
Photo for memory, Or why it is important to keep old pictures
Surely every family has photo albums with old family photographs that gather dust somewhere in cupboards, on mezzanines. Someone decides to simply throw them away to make way, and someone has long been going to take apart old pictures, but their hands do not reach this point.
About what historical value photo archives have, said the famous photographer Ramil Gali.
Old photos: to the dump or to the museum?
– Why has the topic of preserving photo archives become so relevant today? Continue reading
Photography as a form of art
At the time of the birth of photography, aesthetics were dominated by the belief that only man-made work can be art. The image of reality obtained using technical physicochemical methods could not even claim such a status. And although the first photographers, gravitating towards the artistry of the image, showed considerable compositional ingenuity to display reality (sometimes changing it beyond recognition), photography did not fit into the system of social values and priorities as one of the muses for a long time. Continue reading
