Women in Russian Photography of the 1990s

Contents:

• Vita Buivid
• Katya Golitsyna
• Victoria Ivleva
• Lyalya Kuznetsova
• Tatiana Liberman
• Galina Lukyanova
• Galina Moskaleva
• Lyudmila Tabolina
• Olga Tobreluts
• Natalia Olga Chernysheva

18+

The article contains references to the works of V. M. Ivleva-York, who was recognized as a foreign agent in Russia.

Several years ago, at a time when our lives were divided into "before" and "after", a young photography researcher from New York expressed dissatisfaction with the impossibility of pursuing her subject in Russia, claiming that the country lacked women photographers. Over time, my initial surprise transformed into an understanding of the reasons behind the widespread stereotype of male dominance in Russian photography. Indeed, when analyzing Russian photography from afar, without directly delving into the research, one might come to such a conclusion, which is quite far from the truth, based on existing publications.

Unfortunately, many young women in our country believe that the participation and recognition of professional female photographers in various fields of photography is an exclusively recent phenomenon, arising only as a result of the #metoo movement. However, this point of view is erroneous. By turning to archival materials and studying Anatoly Popov's reference book entitled "Russian Photographers (1839–1930)," one can see that women have always played a significant role in the development of Russian photography.

Already in the 19th century, women's presence in photography was quite noticeable. However, in the 1990s, the number of women in this field became especially impressive. Their influence was felt in a wide variety of areas: from reportage and art photography to neo-pictorial and fashion photography. In every aspect of photography, women have occupied significant positions and played key roles.

I would like to introduce you to a few women from this extensive list of remarkable photographers who worked in an era of experimentation and the intersection of various discourses.

Vita Buivid

Art photography is unthinkable without provocation and exploration of the so-called gender. In the 1990s, Vita Buivid's post-postmodernist works caused shock, since openly displaying relationships with men was considered unacceptable. You should not think that all the men featured were well known to her; Rather, it was a time when the opportunity arose to freely explore the other half of humanity, something previously unavailable.

Knitted codpieces dyed in vibrant aniline colors, postcards featuring nude characters changing outfits, and fantasies on nineteenth-century themes create an atmosphere as if cyberpunk had invaded the world of erotic art. Her creations intertwined elements of Gogol's fair and the escapist motifs of Timur Novikov's "New Academy," where Vita Buivid had established herself as a resident artist in various locations. Then came the era of Moscow, with its merchant-scale exhibitions of that time…

Vita's activities in the 1990s are now called photo-based art. Her provocative installations have received a solid definition, and she herself has become a photo director for popular publications and an artist whose works are included in major collections and exhibited in museums. If not for that turbulent era, photography-based art in our country would hardly have found an audience.

Katya Golitsyna

Yes, that's the name. And, of course, princely roots. Her aristocratic approach to technique is evident in the fact that it's not appropriate for a graduate of the Printing Institute to simply exhibit a photograph, even if it's extremely aesthetically pleasing. Therefore, there is a need for refinement: what Katya herself called “photographics” or “hand-made photography.”

The lace products of this craftswoman found a response among art critics, not who had experience in photography, but had a refined taste in graphic art. Themes related to vintage cars, jazz, or forgotten corners of Moscow filled the hearts of art critics, curators, and museum curators with special warmth and goodwill.

Katya Golitsyna became one of the first members of the Union of Photo Artists of Russia, which she joined in 1992. In 2000, she was awarded the Triumph Prize in the White Hall of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. At that time, this event was equivalent to receiving state awards.

Victoria Ivleva

Victoria Ivleva can be found among the 1992 laureates on the World Press Photo platform. It was she who found herself inside the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant five years after the disaster. To say that her male colleagues envied her courage and achievements would be an understatement.

Ivleva is an experienced journalist with outstanding skills in both writing and photography. In the late 1980s, when new opportunities arose, she began working as a stringer, establishing partnerships with foreign news agencies. In the 1990s, her attention was drawn to conflict zones in the former USSR, where she actively engaged in photography.

During this period, her unique approach was formed, which could perhaps be called truly feminine: she does not limit herself to covering events from the epicenter, but also chooses a path that leads to the most vulnerable - refugees, women and children. She shares stories of how wars and conflicts cut off the branches of the tree that symbolizes the future.

Vika Ivleva continues her professional work and is the recipient of numerous awards, but for her, their number It's not the main focus. Her memoirs from the 1990s include several vivid episodes: for example, filming on the Tajik-Afghan border, which at the time was overshadowed by more high-profile news from other regions, as well as work for the Red Cross in Africa. Following the principles of great 19th-century Russian literature, which call for compassion and attention to ordinary people, Ivleva successfully engaged in photojournalism at the end of the 20th century.

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Lyalya Kuznetsova

Lyalya Mendybaevna is a specialist in the field of aircraft design. With the same ease with which she chose her profession, realizing her childhood dream of flying, she left the usual life of a Soviet engineer and picked up a camera. This decision opened her path to the world of photography, where she became known as the Author of the Theme. For more than four decades, since the 1970s, her attention has focused on depicting Roma. However, her work is not limited to social issues or ethnographic research; She strives to capture the freedom and joy of people who have maintained a connection with their roots and nature.

Her works can undoubtedly be classified as outstanding examples of documentary photography, which existed in the Soviet Union, despite all the difficulties. However, Lyalya only gained widespread recognition and public exhibitions in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During this period, she was awarded the Mother Jones Award in Washington, and her photo book was published by the prestigious Aperture publishing house. Exhibitions of her work have covered a wide range—from the country's first photography museum in Šiauliai, where she exhibited in 1980, to the Kazakh steppes. When someone claims that I'm glorifying the free life of the Roma or something similar, I think of a thought: a photograph created by a person is, to a certain extent, their personal self-portrait. Having mastered the camera and studied the process of developing film and printing images, I began to search for those moments that resonated with me. It's important to note that I never fought for the rights of the Roma; I merely recognized that in our society they are deprived of many opportunities and rights. These are primarily people striving for a horizon that, unfortunately, eludes them.

Lyalya Kuznetsova presents herself on the pages of the Museum of Russian Photography.

Tatiana Liberman

In the early 1990s, Tatiana Liberman's name became an integral part of discussions about women's photography in Russia. Not a single exhibition dedicated to Russian photography as an important aspect of contemporary art was complete without her works, both in the country and abroad. Her works were distinguished by a modernist elegance and bordered on Freudian reflections on dark, feminine, round and empty aspects.

Lieberman's method is An ironic application of psychoanalytic ideas in the context of sexual play with images of simple objects such as kitchen utensils, clothing, and bodies. In her black-and-white photographs, she sets the rules of the game herself, where black and white serve as symbols of opposite poles, personifying the two sexes. An important aspect of her work is the reference to photographic constructivism, which is part of the secret knowledge of the Moscow art scene. In this context, the figure of Rodchenko is not so distant, and her mentor, Alexander Lapin, explored the geometry of composition from various perspectives, including the semantic aspects of form.

Galina Lukyanova

By the time of perestroika, and especially in the 1990s, Galina Nikolaevna Lukyanova had already established herself as a living classic. Her column, "Lukyanova's School," published in Soviet Photo magazine, became a valuable resource for teachers teaching children the basics of photography. Galina has been considered a true master of landscape photography among photographers since the 1970s. She noted that a defining moment in her life was her encounter with the original works of Josef Sudek and Edward Weston, when their exhibitions were held in Moscow in the early 1970s. The first was organized by the Embassy of Socialist Czechoslovakia, and the second by the United States Embassy in the Soviet Union. This took place against the backdrop of the Cold War, and perhaps both sides used stunning photography as a kind of trump card in a political game to demonstrate the superiority of one culture over the other.

Lukyanova was not at all concerned with political intrigues; For her, the only things that mattered were a village with an ancient house, morning fogs over a modest river near Moscow, and the leisurely process of shooting, which smoothly transitioned into the equally leisurely development and creation of author's prints of original photographs.

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Galina Moskaleva

Galina Moskaleva, now a famous Moscow writer, has a story that resembles a route on a map of the former USSR. In her biography, cities and historical moments intertwine, creating the basis for contemporary art. Her birthplace is Šiauliai, Lithuania, and she spent her studies and work as a television journalist in Minsk, Belarus.

Chernobyl. By the time of the tragedy, photography had already become a central theme in her life. This project, born as a poetic expression and metaphor for her inner experiences, about the children of Chernobyl, traveled through several European countries, raising funds to support those affected by the disaster.

Then came her well-known work with the negatives of Galina's family album. Portraits of her younger self, her charming father and joyful mother, printed using a multiple-exposure technique, became a shimmering canvas. This painting seems to envelop real childhood memories, or perhaps even reflects them.

Galina Moskaleva is a pioneer of Belarusian and Russian visual art, exploring the intersection of autofiction and technological experimentation. In her work, the theme of memory and reflection on the past took on a distinctive form, becoming an integral part of the photography of the 1990s.

In recent decades, Moskaleva has deservedly taken a place among the most significant and respected authors originating from the countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. Her works have been acquired by photo museums in Europe and the United States, and have been shown at leading photo festivals. In addition, she was actively involved in the life of the professional community, serving as an expert, photo editor, and curator of exhibitions for younger colleagues.

Lyudmila Tabolina

In St. Petersburg, such graceful and cultured women are considered the true keepers of the city's tradition, although Tabolina, a "Petersburger by blood," was born in Vyshny Volochyok. She was educated in Leningrad and now works as an engineer, while also being a wife and mother in an intelligent family. One gets the impression that all the historical cataclysms and changes experienced by the country passed it by, and it seems that it has moved from pre-revolutionary Russia to the present day without experiencing any surprise.

Modesty, which sometimes borders on self-deprecation, did not become an obstacle for this outstanding photographer, who managed to gain fame and, I dare say, exert influence among her colleagues. In the 1990s, when, against the backdrop of a stormy flow of new knowledge about Russian photography and experimental approaches in the fields of optics and printing, Tabolina independently chose her creative tools. She, seemingly oblivious to other authors and paying no attention to the interest in her person, concentrated on slow and thoughtful work on her series, each of which is something like a new book of poetry.

Olga Tobreluts

In the early 1990s, Olga Tobreluts attracted attention as an extraordinary artist radiating creative and sometimes impracticable ideas. This era became a veritable breeding ground for dreamers: the rapid advancement of computer technology, the advent of digital photography, canvas printing and other amazing materials, and new video editing techniques all provided Tobreluts with unique tools. As a result, she became the only Russian artist whose work was featured in the first edition of Mark Tribe's book "The New Media Art" in 2006.

In her most famous works, she uses digital editing techniques, combining various visual layers, including and photographs. Tobreluts works with multi-layered structures, deliberately leaving gaps between them, which leads to a distortion of connections and a loss of meaning. In her works, the artist combines three-dimensional computer models with flat photographic images.

Her work resembles a theatrical stage in a box, where the artist arranges her characters. This stage is virtual and constructed with the perfect geometry of digital reality, while the characters are fragments of photographs, creating the illusion of three-dimensionality and subject to optical distortion. The fusion of such disparate components gives Olga's works a unique visual perception, possessing both depth and flatness.

Natalia Tsekhomskaya

Another representative of St. Petersburg, who is not only a photographer, but also a theater designer and graphic artist.

Natalia showed a particular interest in experiments related to the formation of a "supra-photographic" layer. In these works, prints, often made with rough montages, resembled dress details gathered on a mannequin and connected with a stiff thread. When they were coated with color, they transformed into something unseen, like the feathers of a bluebird, becoming true treasures.

A stage costume contains a significant amount of art: when viewed from a distance, for example, from an exhibition hall, it gives the impression of being made of luxurious brocade and encrusted with precious stones. In reality, however, it is simply simple sackcloth, as well as ordinary pieces of cheap painted glass, colored with aniline and colored pencils. However, the initial feeling of magic is hard to dispel, because the images created by Natalia in her studio amaze with their effectiveness and paradoxicality.

In her works, she often returns to childhood memories, exploring the concept of freedom both in the imaginary world (paradise gardens and flowers) and in real, sensual life (theater, nudity, animals).

Olga Chernysheva

An artist from Moscow with a background in animation and a deep understanding of the history of art, both classical and contemporary. She studied at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) and had the opportunity to interact with Viktor Misiano and representatives of the Moscow school of conceptualism.

Photography is just one of the diverse tools Olga Chernysheva uses, along with video, graphic art, and painting. However, this did not prevent her from creating significant series of works using exclusively photographic techniques, which already in the 1990s attracted the attention of curators at European photo festivals.

Chernysheva, She likely represents one of the latest "legitimate" generations of Moscow Conceptualism, focusing on language games. In her documentary photography, she employs linguistic allusions and a minimalist visual style. She strives to find visual assonances and anagrams in her surroundings, thereby revealing hidden meanings that extend beyond the material world. By collecting these visual symbols and linking them into unusual combinations, she creates narratives about her era. This is a story about both the mohair hats that filled wintertime Russia and the trains that replaced the troika, sending the entire country on an eternal journey.

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