(based on "20th Century Photography-Museum Ludwig Cologne")
Boris Ignatovich
(1899 - 1976)
Boris Ignatovich is one of the
outstanding photographers of the Russian avant-garde - the pioneers of
photo journalism. He belonged to the Rodchenko and Lissitzky circle of
artists and was closely affiliated and befriended with professional
photographers like Alpert and Shaikhet, Skurichin and Shagin, Langman and
Sterzer, Fridljand and Tules, Markov and Chalip, Petrusov and Kovrigin as
well as Gruntal and Chlebnikov, the masters of subject- and document
related photography.
For the avant-garde artist amongst the photographers of the 1920's there
had been three different ways of becoming involved in photography. The
first group started with painting and graphics and progressed to
photography by working with polygraphy. The careers of Rodchenko and
Lissitzky like those of the propaganda artists Gustav Kluzic and Sergej
Senkin, the graphic artist and designer Nikolai Setelnikov and the
architect and designer Georgij Zimin, who devoted himself to the photogram
rather unexpectedly, followed this path. Others however began their
professional career as photographers in photographic studios,
alternatively through literature and journalism establishing contacts with
writers, editors and working as journalists. Some professional writers
also turned to photography. Photographs exist of writers like I. Ehrenburg,
I. Ilf and S. Tretiakov.
Ignatovich was a journalist before becoming a photographer. During the
autumn of 1918, he worked at the editor's office of the Lugansk magazine "Severo-Donezki
Communist" and subsequently went to the Kharkov magazine "Krasnaja swesda".
In 1920 he was appointed editor of the newly founded magazine "Krasnaja
Bashkirija" and was sent as a delegate to the first Allunion congress of
ROSTA workers. In 1921 he worked as chief editor for the magazine "Gornjak"
(together with M. Mikov), where he published satirical poems by
Majakovskij. Between 1922 and 1925 he was chief editor of the Leningrad
humoristic magazines "Dresina", "Smechatsh" and "Busoter".
Ignatovich later remembered his first experiences with photography.
On the Construction Site, 1929
Shower, 1935
Milling-machine operator,
1929
Dinamo, 1930
At the Hermitage, 1930
Nikita Khruschev, 1936
Lunch in the Commune, 1928
Youth, 1937
At the stove, 1927
Spanner on the controls, 1929
May Day, 1927
At the collective farms
fair in Tbilisi, 1932
Boris Pasternak and Korney Chukovsky, 1935
Pig iron casting, 1937
VII Komsomol conference, 1935
At the Red Corner, 1928
Chess tournament, 1935
Brass band on the Red Square, 1935
Michael Zoschenko, 1923
At the Big Theater, 1935
Vladimir Mayakovsky on Red Square, 1928
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