Tselina: The photographical practices of perception

Doi: 10.33876/2311-0546/2019-45-1/30-53

Abstract

The paper presents the results of an experimental study on practices in visual anthropology based on photographs made by amateur authors during an expedition to «Tselina» (virgin lands) in Orenburg Oblast. The study considers photographs both in their representative aspect and as a material for the enquiry on perspectives, behavior and attitudes of amateur photographers and their models in historical, anthropological and visual contexts. The article analyzes the interaction between interview and photography practices, along with the ethos of photographer – model encounter, paying attention to ways of seeing particularities both determined by cultural and historical differences.
Such an optics aimed at the visual material obtained during the expedition allows examining of typical images of the Soviet ‘Tselina’ campaign in the light of historical memory, which manifests itself in an impact of aesthetical registers and visual practices of the three parts of the process: the anthropologist, the photographer and the model.

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