Who Knew Photos From Soviet-Era Russia Could Look So Happy?

[Larry1]

That is the title of an article in slate.com about the photographs of a Soviet era photographer named Sergey Chilikov.  The photos include those taken in Moscow, Cheboksary, Samara, Yalta, and the Caucasus.  They are on display in Moscow:

Who Knew Photos From Soviet-Era Russia Could Look So Happy?

It would be difficult to guess Sergey Chilikov’s photographs are a product of repressive, Soviet-era Russia. Sergey Chilikov: Selected Works 1978–, published by Schilt Publishing at the end of 2011 is brimming with Chilikov’s relatively unknown work covering the span of his career, from the 1970s through the late 2000s.

The book’s introduction describes the bleak place photography held in Soviet Russia during the 1970s. During that period, photography wasn’t given credence as a legitimate art form and even classic Soviet photography wasn’t included in museum exhibitions. In order to get their work seen, photographers started their own clubs, exchanging work with other clubs and organizing their own exhibitions and festivals, and thereby creating a community that supported photography as a legitimate art form.

Into this realm came Sergey Chilikov, one of the founding members of the FACT group, which was active from 1976 to 1988. Chilikov’s photographs stand out because they espouse a humor and an ease not commonly seen in images of Soviet-era Russia.

The small freedoms depicted in Chilikov’s work are happily out of step with the usual images from this particular time and place. Chilikov’s work continued in this spirit after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, though clearly repression didn’t evaporate overnight.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/06/10/sergey_chilikov_a_photographer_s_work_from_during_soviet_era_russia_through.html?wpisrc=obinsite

[Lily]

Of course people look happy. Why wouldn't they?
 
The good old USSR had a helluva lot of life in it. Despite an artificial economy, closed borders and other less than natural things, there was a huge country where life was going on.

[Ooooops]

I really like this Russian photographer with his unique style




http://www.photo.rusproject.org/categories.php?cat_id=59&page=1