Alexander Rodchenko, Hardcover

Alexanader Rodchenko was one of the main generators of creative ideas during the extraordinary time of the Russian avant-garde movements, and he perfectly reflected its spiritual atmosphere. In 1924, photography was "invaded" by Rodchenko, resulting in a fundamental rethinking on the nature of photography and the role of the photographer. With the introduction of conceptual considerations, the photograph changed from being a mere reflection of reality to a means of visually representing dynamic intellectual constructions. Throughout the entire history of Russian photography in the first half of the twentieth century, Alexander Rodchenko is the only figure to have left us definitive traces through the publication of articles and diaries: they are the artistic reflections of a thinker-photographer, the witness to a historic cataclysm that generated a tragic conflict in him between conscious supposition and the unconscious creative drive.

Olga Sviblova is Director of Moscow House of Photography Museum and Multimedia Art Museum.

Varvara Rodchenko, photographer and artist, is the daughter of Aleksandr Rodchenko.