National in Front of the Camera, Soviet Behind It: Central Asia in Press Photography, 1925–1937

Abstract

National in front of the Camera, Soviet behind it: Central Asia in Press Photography, 1925–1937 While photography in early Soviet Union is a well-researched field, researchers addressed hitherto mostly Soviet Russia. The history of photography in the Central Asian Soviet Republics, though, lacks research. This article focuses on the means of production and distribution of photographs taken in Uzbekistan 1926–1937. With Roland Barthes theory of «connotation», it interprets the visual invention of the Soviet Orient. Photographs by Georgij Zel'ma and Maks Penson of Uzbekistan that were published in Soviet mass media are analyzed, determining style, content and function. Through additional textual analysis, I discuss the network of photographers on the periphery and image agents on the centre. Socialist connotations are derived from appropriations of pre-revolutionary photographs accompanied by false textual framing, innovative compositions of ethnographic images and combinations of local cultural symbols with Soviet modernity. As photographers, primarily from Moscow, travelled to Central Asia, they greatly dominated its visual depiction. Although they emphasized Soviet modernity, they also reproduced older stereotypes about the Orient. Besides offering a history on photography, this article also discusses the establishment of Soviet cultural structures between the centre and the periphery as well as the subordinated agency of local actors at the periphery.