The article considers the visual images of Soviet Kamchatka of the 1930s, presented in the photo archive of the Kamchatka journalist G.Z. Gaidukevich (1911-1996), whose works can be attributed to the genre of industrial photo reportage. The materials of this archive, stored in the Kamchatka Regional United Museum are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The peculiarities of the Soviet industrial photo reportage at the local level are analyzed by the author in the context of the implementation of related large-scale projects of the 1930s - the “Cinema Atlas of the USSR” and the “History of Factories and Plants”. Techniques for creating industrial photo reportage of the 1930s as a special direction in the field of Soviet photography are studied, as well as formal elements of the image of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky as an industrial outpost on the far eastern outskirts of the USSR is analyzed. A study conducted in this work showed that G.Z. Gaidukevich developed in Kamchatka photojournalism of the 1930s the principles of industrial photo reportage, designed by metropolitan photographers. The creative motives of the Kamchatka journalist were fully relevant the purpose of representation of socialist life in Kamchatka as one of the most remote regions of the Union in the 1930s. Pictures created by Gaidukevich in the 1930s in the Kamchatka territory are characterized by ideological content and detailed portrayal of the daily reality of Soviet Kamchatka, the introduction of constructivist techniques, the reflection of the dynamics of urban life, the fixation of the direct expression of the characters' faces, as well as an emphasis on photo information. According to its orientation, techniques and ideological basis, the industrial photo reportage of G.Z. Gaidukevich organically fits into the system of scientific and creative searches of the 1930s aimed at visual representation of the socialist development of various regions of the Soviet Union. Kamchatka in the photo archive of G.Z. Gaidukevich appears as a region undergoing radical changes in the 1930s, due to the construction of city-forming factories and infrastructure. The author declares no conflicts of interests.
Translated title of the contributionKAMCHATKA IN INDUSTRIAL PHOTO REPORTAGE OF G.Z. GAIDUKEVICH, 1930S
Original languageRussian
Pages (from-to)159-180
JournalСибирские исторические исследования
Issue number2
StatePublished - 2022

    Research areas

  • SOVIET VISUAL CULTURE, Visual image, INDUSTRIAL PHOTO REPORTAGE, industrialization, SOVIET PHOTO INDUSTRY, CINEMA ATLAS OF THE USSR, Kamchatka

ID: 98766372