Aleksander Rodchenko

I discovered Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1891–1956) whilst watching the BBC series, The Genius of Photography. The program elaborately described him as a constructivist artist and photographer. He dabbled with many different mediums including painting, decorating, printing, illustration, commercial designing, and photography. In 1921 he became Chairman of State Institute of Artistic Culture and Chairman of Museum Bureau and Russian State Art Acquisitions Commission.

Rodchenko began his artist career as a painter but upon the release of compact, lightweight, handheld cameras declared that painting was dead and turned his interest to photography. He believed that the camera was the tool of the new artist as it was modern and objective. No longer having to shoot from the waste and on a tripod, a gateway had opened for an era of experimental photography.

Not being contempt with traditional approaches; the new society needed new ways of seeing and so he revolutionised the art of still photography by using his camera as if it were a drawing instrument and also mastered the use of photo-montage, odd angles, wide frames, and photo-series. He opened new dimensions in photography by exploring the potential of shadows and photographing from unusual obscured viewpoints. Rodchenko believed that shooting his subjects from high above or below angles would shock the viewer and postpone their recognition of his chosen subject.

Rodchenko designed a magazine entitled USSR in Construction to showcase political propaganda which glorified the achievements of the soviet system. The magazine contained dramatic origami style pages which accompanied his alternative approach to art.

As I have been creating and will be creating more montages in this course I decided to conduct some research of a famous photomontage artist. I felt that Aleksander Rodchenko was perfect for this study as he mastered Photomontage and I can relate to his compositions. His style is similar to my own and his work has inspired me to keep on going when I have run out of ideas.

The collage on the left is an Illustration that Rodchenko created for the poem 'Pro eto' by Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1923.

He cut, pasted, retouched and re-photographed images to create imaginative visions of the future. Merging multiple photographs supresses their individuality and collectively energises the overall image. The main purpose of photomontage is to portray multiple messages in a single composition whereas with a photograph of a single subject it is harder to convey multiple ideas.

“Photomontage is the process and result of making a composite photograph by cutting and joining a number of other photographs. The composite picture was sometimes photographed so that the final image is converted back into a seamless photographic print. A similar method, although one that does not use film, is realized today through image-editing software. This latter technique is referred to by professionals as "compositing", and in casual usage is often called “photoshopping”.” (David Geelan (2006). Undead Theories: Constructivism, Eclecticism And Research in Education.)

If a single picture speaks a 1000 words, how many words does a montage speak?

 

Image Information:

1. Title - Portrait of the artist, photographer and graphic designer Alexander Rodchenko, Artist - Kaufman, Mikhail Abramovich (1897-1980). Source - http://www.bridgemaneducation.com
2. Title - Illustration for the poem 'Pro eto', by Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930), 1923 (collage). Artist - Rodchenko, Alexander (1891-1956). Source - http://www.bridgemaneducation.com