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