Aleksandr Rodčenko: fotografie dallo VCHUTEMAS

VKhUTEMAS in Moscow experienced a unique co-existence of different genres and stylistic expressions of the twentieth century, one of the most important of which was photography. This is due largely to Aleksandr Rodchenko, versatile artist, who in 1924 switched from graphics to photography, an activity that he remained committed to until the end of his days. In 1928 VKhUTEMAS started the first known photography course for young designers. The lectures program, written by Rodchenko himself, included both laboratory exercises – such as experiments with impressions of objects and their shadows on photosensitive paper – as well as outdoor activities – like reportages on individuals, often taken incognito, or different aspects and phenomena of city life. In the same period, Rodchenko also began to document the activity of VKhUTEMAS with a series of shots almost unknown to the public at large. Rodchenko’s school of photography was based on three pillars. In the first place, composition, which he understood as a reasoned system that accommodates different details with a similar design approach. Then, a prominent socio-cultural and documentary function, whose aim is to address a sympathising gaze to all human activities. Finally, a continue experimentation, supported by mastery of light and optics as figurative and compositional tools. The originality of Rodchenko’s photos is due to the foreshortening principle, defined as a reduction of forms to a minimum and unusual perspective, usually from the top or bottom, allowing the viewer to understand different facets of reality. The foreshortenings are perceived in terms of general categories such as shape, structure, space and rhythm, as well as non-figurative compositions: for this same reason Rodchenko claimed to practice a non-objective, abstract photography. And this, also within the conviction that the earlier possibilities of painting in documenting an event, exploited successfully in the past, were now put into practice much more efficiently by photography