Pocket Guide -> Media -> Gelatin silver print -> Pioneer with Horn
Pioneer with Horn
by Aleksandr Rodchenko · Russian, 1891 - 1956
| Creation Date: | 1930s |
| Media & Support: | Gelatin silver print |
| Dimensions: | 3 x 4 ¼ inches |
| Credit: | Musuem Purchase, Derby Fund |
A father of Soviet photography and one of the more versatile and creative of modern artists, Aleksandr Rodchenko placed a dramatic new style of photographic art at the service of the revolution. For Rodchenko, the technical and expressive strategies of a photographer were as important as the subject of the photograph— as in this picture of an ethnic member of the Soviet youth movement, Pioneers. The young man, with a horn, literally and symbolically heralds the arrival of the new Communist order. Rodchenko has chosen a close-up view and has tilted the horizon to add dynamic elements to the photograph. The composition recalls the forceful, acute angles and wedge shapes of the works by the Russian avant-garde constructivists and filmmakers.
