Zoya Maksimovna Rubinina

Researcher
State Historical Museum

It is difficult to overestimate A.S., formulated in the Russian version of neo-Kantianism and developed in relation to historical knowledge. Lappo-Danilevsky’s principle of “recognition of someone else’s animation.” Only if the historian is guided in his work with sources by this very principle, if he tries to understand another with whom he is divided by time and (often) space, history becomes the science of the past of people, and not the study of structures created by people. This is most clearly evident when working with sources of personal origin. In this case, the historian often becomes the only opportunity for people of the past to find posthumous existence.

The paradox is that, for all their attractiveness, sources of personal origin have traditionally attracted less research attention than official sources. Moreover, this is consistent with the basic principle of acquisition of state domestic archives, where the main sources of acquisition are government agencies. Sources of personal origin have the opportunity to attract the attention of researchers if they are related to life and activities famous people of the past. Family archives so-called " ordinary people", as a rule, are not popular among professional historians and become the object of purely public interest.

If the above is true for written sources of personal origin, namely written sources have been and remain a priority for historians, then even more so this applies to family photographs and, in particular, to the family photographic archive as a historical source.

The history of photography as a whole can be called a peripheral topic for Soviet historiography. As a rule, art historians dealt with it, and there were not many works on this topic. In recent decades, this topic has become quite popular. It can be called truly interdisciplinary, since the history of photography is studied by art critics, historians, psychologists, etc. On the one hand, the topic is thus studied in the context of various scientific disciplines, which makes it possible to consider it comprehensively. On the other hand, it cannot be called a priority for historical science. In particular, this applies to the study of photography as a historical source. A more than serious exception to the rule in this case are the works of V.M. Magidov, but they are dedicated to the hypersystem of film-photo-phonodocuments (KFFD). In this case, photography is considered as part of a general system, although, of course, it has its own characteristics as a historical source. Also worth mentioning are the works of students of V.M. Magidov, dedicated to individual photographic monuments, but there are not very many similar works. As for family photographic archives, as far as I know, in Russian historical science there are no source studies devoted to this type of monuments. The situation is quite understandable: since the topic of the history of photography in general was peripheral for a long time, its development in recent decades began, of course, with the publication of works general, publications of masterpieces Russian photography from the country's archival and museum collections and rethinking the national photographic heritage at the level individual species photos . At the same time, we are talking about a complex and very remarkable type of historical sources, but in order not to be limited to such general phrases and general characteristic, which in this case will look like a rabbit pulled from a hat, let us consider the features of this type of historical sources using the example of the photographic archive of the Levitsky family from the collection of the State Historical Museum (hereinafter referred to as the State Historical Museum).

Ill. 1. Alexander Konstantinovich Levitsky and Elena Dmitrievna Levitskaya with their son Sergei. August 21, 1866 Photographic studio “Photography E. Kiriakoff”.

The Levitskys are a Polish noble family, known since the mid-16th century. Representatives of this family were patrimonial owners. Served in the army. They received royal awards for their (usually military) service. They held positions in the state administration system. In the 18th century, representatives of this genus found themselves on the territory of the Russian Empire. These are, as a rule, small landowners, low-ranking military officers, low-ranking officials, and Orthodox priests. Thus, the average Polish noble family turns into an impoverished Russian noble family. It is not surprising that, as often happened in the middle of the 19th century, similar kind became the progenitor of a family that can be classified as a member of the Russian intelligentsia.

Materials from the family archive, stored in the State Historical Museum, make it possible to illuminate the history of three generations of the Levitsky family, starting from the 1830s. to the 1970s The first generation is represented by the family of a gymnasium teacher living in Kerch, the son of a parish priest, hereditary nobleman Alexander Konstantinovich Levitsky (1833 or 1835 - 1869), married to the daughter of a wealthy official, tradesman Dmitry Lukich Pospolitaki Elena (1844 - not earlier than 1934) (ill. 1) . Materials from the family archive and identified published sources also make it possible to partially reconstruct the biography of brother A.K. Levitsky - Philip Levitsky (born 1837) - inspector of the Sandomierz gymnasium from the city of Kamenets-Podolsky.

The second generation of the family is represented by three sons A.K. and E.D. Levitsky and their families. All three brothers received higher education and worked in typical “intelligentsia” professions. Thus, the eldest son Sergei Alexandrovich (February 2, 1866 - 1945) was a sworn attorney. Lived in Moscow. He was one of the founders of the Prechistensky courses for workers. He was married to the noblewoman Aglaida Listovskaya, the great-granddaughter of the famous figure of Catherine's times, Count Zavadovsky. They had two sons: Yuri and Anatoly. In 1918 the family emigrated to France. The middle of the Levitsky brothers, Vyacheslav Alexandrovich (February 3, 1867 – August 5, 1936), after graduating from Moscow University in 1890, became a zemstvo doctor. He worked in the Moscow province (since 1896 - as a sanitary doctor in the Podolsk region) (ill. 2). His specialization and life's work was industrial hygiene. For many years, Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich was engaged in the search and implementation of a mercury-free method of hat production. In 1914, he became the head of the Sanitary Bureau of the Moscow Provincial Zemstvo, and during the First World War he was involved in organizing a network of hospitals for the wounded in the Moscow Province. Since 1900 he was friendly with the Ulyanov family. Participated in the distribution of the newspaper Iskra. After the October Revolution, at the personal request of V.I. Lenin became one of the creators of the industrial hygiene system in the young Soviet state: in particular, he was a consultant to the People's Commissariat of Health on factory hygiene issues, deputy director of the Sanitary and Hygienic Institute of the NKZ (1921), creator and first director of the Institute of Labor Safety of the NKT, NKZ and VSNKh (1925) , one of the editors of the journal Occupational Hygiene (1923). He was married to Maria Alexandrovna Shlyapina (1874 - June 18, 1936), who was a paramedic before her marriage. They had two daughters (ill. 3). The younger brother of Sergei and Vyacheslav, Alexander Alexandrovich Levitsky (January 1, 1870 - June 14, 1919) was an agronomist. He worked in the provincial zemstvo of the Taurida province; after the October Revolution - in the Kerch land department. He was shot by the White Guards in 1919. He had a wife, Claudia, and a son, Alexander.

Ill. 2. Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Levitsky at his desk. Presumably 1910s.

The third generation of the family is represented by the daughters of V.A. and M.A. Levitsky Irina and Elena and Elena’s husband Dmitry Skvortsov (ill. 4). In this case, not only the era changes, but also the social group: the lives of both sisters and D.A. Skvortsova was dedicated to art.

The elder sister Irina Vyacheslavovna became a choreography teacher. During the Great Patriotic War was the artistic director of the front-line concert brigade; in 1948 she worked in the Primorsky Territory, although before and after that she lived and worked in Moscow. Irina Vyacheslavovna had a family, about which we only know the name of her husband - Nikolai Listovsky. We do not know the years of I.V.’s life. Levitskaya. We can only say that in 1976 Irina Vyacheslavovna was still alive and working. The younger sister Elena Vyacheslavovna Levitskaya (1901 - December 1978) became a dramatic actress. She worked in various Moscow theaters. During the war she was in the front-line concert brigade. In 1944 she was awarded the medal “For the Defense of Moscow”. After 1949 E.V. Levitskaya was forced to give up her career in order to care for her seriously ill husband. Having been widowed, in the last years of her life Elena Vyacheslavovna did a lot of work to perpetuate the memory of her father. E.V. Levitskaya was married to actor, director and theater artist Dmitry Alekseevich Skvortsov (October 5, 1901 - 1969). Like Elena Vyacheslavovna, Dmitry Alekseevich worked in various Moscow theaters and was a member of the front-line concert brigade. YES. Skvortsov was an incredibly talented amateur photographer. Unfortunately, in 1949 Dmitry Alekseevich became disabled and could no longer work.

Ill. 3. Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Levitsky with his wife Maria Alexandrovna and daughters Irina and Elena. 1900s

In relation to the family history reconstructed from the materials of the family archive, one can talk, among other things, about the manifestation of characteristic social processes. Representatives of the Polish noble family in the 18th century found themselves in the territory Russian Empire, in the 19th century. become part of the poor Russian nobility. One of the representatives of the family, the son of a parish priest and a high school teacher, marries the daughter of a wealthy official. Their sons receive a university education, work in “intelligentsia” professions, are engaged in social and social activities. Their fates are typical for the era: emigration, successful work in new mode, death during the Civil War. Less characteristic are the fates of the third generation of the family, represented by the daughters of V.A. Levitsky. Here it is necessary to take into account the insufficiency of biographical materials about I.V. Levitskaya and the tragic personal and professional destinies of E.V. Levitskaya and D.A. Skvortsov, but even in this case it is possible to identify the realities of the era through the life of the family (theater life of the 1929-1940s, front-line concert brigades). Thus, using the example of the Levitsky family, we can talk about a number of global processes and sociocultural phenomena in Russian history.

At the same time, materials from the Levitsky family archive, as well as other identified sources (published works by F.K. Levitsky, materials from D.A. Skvortsov’s personal fund in the Central Academy of Medical Sciences) make it possible not only to reconstruct the relationship between the realities of the era and the life of the family, but also to analyze the beliefs of family representatives in context of the beliefs of the social group to which the family belonged. Thus, it turned out to be possible to identify the relationship between the educational and/or works dedicated to the social problems of the Podolian peasantry by F.K. Levitsky and public and professional activity his nephews. Views of V.A. Levitsky, aimed at helping people, are also reconstructed from his personal correspondence of the 1890s. with M.A. Shlyapina. In this case, we can talk about a certain continuity of generations. The third generation of the family is already suffering from other professional problems, but here it is possible to analyze the creative views and tastes of D.A. Skvortsov in the context of artistic representations of the 1920-1930s.

Ill. 4. Irina and Elena Levitsky with an unknown woman. 1910-1920s Photographer: presumably Alexander Alexandrovich Levitsky. On the back is the inscription I.V. Levitskaya: “Uncle Sasha filmed with my camera in the morning in the dining room, but he said to look higher and I pray to God for this.”

The relationship between a family and the era in which this family lived is only one side of the coin. Each reconstructed biography deals with a unique human destiny, each of which is interesting and significant. This is precisely one of the main features of the family archive as a historical source: it preserves the personalities and destinies of the so-called. “ordinary people” who lived in a certain place at a certain time and, thus, becomes a conductor of relationships from people of the past to people of the present.

In this context, it is possible to analyze the type composition of documents in the family archive as a monument where documents are accumulated, on the one hand, characterizing the various relationships of the family as a social group, and, on the other hand, preserving the human, personal relationships of people of the past. This relationship between the typical and the unique, the social and the personal is also characteristic of the photographic part of the family archive.

The photographic part of the family archive consists of 706 museum items, which include 3 photo albums, 12 negatives (including 3 glass negatives and 9 film negatives), 1 paper envelope for negatives, 683 photographic prints, 2 phototypes and 5 postcards . Note that the vast majority of prints from the family archive are stored as originals. Thus, when analyzing the photographic part of the Levitsky family archive, the main attention will be paid to photographic prints. When classifying the photographic part of the archive, all items included in it were taken into account, with the exception of photo albums and an envelope for negatives, which will be discussed in appropriate cases. The Levitsky family archive contains photographs from 1862 to 1976.

The museumification of the Levitsky family archive cannot in any way be called carried out according to industry standards. The last owner of the family archive was Elena Vyacheslavovna Levitskaya, who in the last years of her life closely communicated with the staff of the Central Museum of V.I. Lenin (hereinafter referred to as TsML) and the staff of the Ulyanov House Museum in Podolsk. After the death of Elena Vyacheslavovna in December 1978, the employees of the Central Medical Laboratory (including the current head of the sector visual arts FML Eduard Danilovich Zadiraka) came to the apartment to pick up things and documents bequeathed to TsML E.V. Levitskaya. According to E.D. The bully, the museum workers found the apartment completely destroyed. Family albums late XIX– beginning of the 20th century. were torn apart. Photos and documents are scattered on the floor. Before the museum workers, representatives of housing authorities visited the apartment. The fact that E.V.’s apartment Levitskaya - the apartment of one of the close friends of the Ulyanov family, was widely known. E.D. Tuffnut assumes that they were looking for monetary documents and valuables.

Thus, the TsML employees had to collect the destroyed Levitsky family archive throughout the apartment and urgently evacuate it to the museum. It should be noted that for a number of reasons, the Central Library did not keep consistent records and descriptions of new receipts. Therefore, a significant part of the photographs accumulated in the TsML collections were not registered in the museum’s accounting documentation. This happened with photographs and documents from the Levitsky family archive.

The documents from the family archive were formed into files and placed in a folder, but were not accepted for museum registration, since the collection of documents, as well as the vast majority of the Central Library collections, did not have a permanent custodian at that time. The collection of photographs did not have a custodian until 1998. Therefore, the photographic part of the Levitsky family archive was discovered during the identification of collection items in the model storage room in 2002, where it had lain since December 1978 in the very suitcase in which it was brought from apartments E.V. Levitskaya. Only by comparing the inscriptions on the photographs with the composition of the department’s documentary fund was it possible to establish that we are talking about the photographic part of the Levitsky family archive. Museum processing and research of photographs from the Levitsky family archive began only in the mid-2000s, when the collections of the former Central Library were already part of the State Historical Museum (since 1993).

Thus, the family archive ended up in the museum collection quite by accident. Neither the owners of the archive nor the museum staff selected monuments for museum storage. On the one hand, the completeness of the Levitsky family archive raises great doubts, since it was about the evacuation of the placer from the apartment of the late E.V. Levitskaya. On the other hand, the absence of a preliminary selection makes it possible to ignore the fact that the composition of the family archive, before its museumification, was twice assessed for what would supposedly be important to descendants. Moreover, it is assessed both by the owners themselves (i.e., representatives of society who assess the significance of the monument, according to their ideas about history, which are very far from scientific), and by museum employees (i.e., representatives of the professional community who, willingly or unwillingly, pay attention to the expositional attractiveness of objects, their correspondence to their own scientific topic, as well as the composition of the existing collections of the museum, taking into account how original a particular complex will be for a given collection and how much its theme corresponds to the profile of the museum as a whole). In other words, when analyzing this family archive, one can not take into account the ideas of people of the 1970s, but focus only on the time of creation of the monuments, which is by no means important when analyzing the species composition of the complex.

Another question is that the attribution of such an original museum complex is difficult. Documents and photographs of the family archive do not always agree with each other. The Levitskys themselves rarely signed their photographs; they did not write a single caption for the photographs in their albums. The last owner of the family archive died childless, and the museum staff had no contact with other members of the family. Therefore, here we will talk not just about the source capabilities of the family photographic archive, but about the family photographic archive with difficult attribution as a historical source.

Before moving on to the analysis of the source capabilities of the Levitsky family photographic archive, I note that the photographs in the archive were classified by genre: portrait, landscape photography, genre photographs, still life, subject photography. Also, given their sociocultural significance, photographic reproductions of portraits of famous people and works of art were also included in a separate group. At the same time, personal complexes of family representatives were also identified as part of the family archive in those cases where this was possible. Personal complexes of family representatives are, in most cases, individual and group portraits of a particular person, as well as portraits with dedicatory inscriptions addressed to him.

The majority of photographic documents in the Levitsky family archive are portraits: 528 items (471 images). Moreover, amateur photographs are only 121 items (106 images). The largest number of individual portraits are: professional – 309 items (276 images), and amateur – 69 items (60 images). Chronologically, the portraits of the family archive cover the period from the 1850s to the 1950s, although most of them date from the 1880s to the 1920s. Thus, we are dealing, first of all, with mass studio individual photographic portraits of the late 19th – early 20th centuries.

It is known that the portrait for photography of the 19th century, so to speak, is the “mainstream” genre, since it was he who combined photography as a method of depiction and photography as a type commercial activities. Most photographic genres and methods of using photography appeared almost along with its invention. Moreover, since photography at the dawn of its existence was limited by the technology existing at that time, portraiture is one of the relatively late genres compared to landscape, still life and product photography. But it was precisely with him that the development and dissemination of photography for the general population was associated. Of course, the use of photography since its official birth in 1839 has been quite wide: for example, in science, in forensics, etc. But most people have not come into contact with such uses of photography. Therefore, commercial photography was significant for broad sections of society. The products of photographic studios are, first of all, portraits, landscape photographs made for sale to tourists, as well as reproductions of portraits of famous people and works of art and photographic “attractions”. The most popular of these products were, of course, portraits.

In order not to assert unfoundedly that we are talking about a representative complex of mass studio photo portrait 1880s - 1910s, I will provide information about the place where the portraits were taken and about the photo studios where they were made. So, by the period of the 1880s - 1910s. includes 281 portraits (246 images) made professional photographers. The shooting location is known for 254 objects (220 images). 11 portraits (8 images) were made abroad, and it is impossible to talk about any prevailing toponym. The bulk of the portraits were made on the territory of the Russian Empire, mainly in cities. In general, we are talking about 30 settlements of the Russian Empire. In terms of the number of portraits made in the studio of one city, Kerch and Moscow are in the lead, which is easy to read in the context of the history of the family, just as it is easy in this context to explain the presence of such cities as Kamenets-Podolsky or Podolsk on the list. Kerch and Moscow portraits can also be considered as a representative group of photographs taken in one provincial city and one capital city. Of course, the above list makes it possible to identify the regions (Crimea, Ukraine, central and southern Russia) in which these cities are located, and to identify a kind of space of geographical connections of the family. We can also talk about a complex of portraits made both in both capitals and in the provinces, and the list includes such large cities of the empire as Kyiv and Odessa, and a significant number of Crimean resorts. The picture is complemented by a small set of portraits made in foreign studios.

This complex allows us to talk about both well-known domestic photographic studios and photographic institutions in the province. Thus, the family archive contains the products of such famous studios of both capitals as: “Photography of the artist E. Bollinger”, “Photography of Bergamasco”, “Photography of K. Shapiro”, “Photography of A. Lawrence” (all in the “northern capital”) , photographs by Karl Bergner, “Photograph of Otto Renard”, “Photograph of I. Dyagovchenko”, “Photograph of G.V. Trunov”, “Photography of M. Konarsky”, “Photography of Franz Opitz”, “Photography of V. Chekhovsky”, “Photography of Doré”, “Photography of P. Pavlov”, “Photography of Scherer, Nabholz and Co.” and other Moscow studios , as well as “Photography by M. Graham” in Kamenets-Podolsk. The history and products of these photographic institutions have been described more than once in the literature. But the family archive also contains products from less renowned photographic institutions. For example, “Photography of N. Chesnokov” and “Photography of A. Yasvoin” in St. Petersburg or products of provincial photo studios (for example, “Photography of G.L. Shulyatsky” in Kerch or “Photography of S. Goldenberg” in Yekaterinodar). At the same time, the owners of large photographic establishments were by no means always famous for their portraiture. It was not for mass studio portraits that Mikhail Greim received international awards. Photography “Scherer, Nabholz and Co.” is known for its landscape photographs, etc. The composition of the family archive also allows us to talk about such a phenomenon in portraiture. professional photography as branches of large studios in the provinces (“Photography by K. Fischer” in Orenburg and “Photography by V. Chekhovsky” in Saratov and Feodosia).

Only in 248 portraits (205 images) those portrayed are currently identified as representatives of the Levitsky family. 280 portraits (266 images) are portraits of unidentified persons. From the point of view of the history of the Levitsky family, portraits of unidentified persons are interesting as a kind of portrait gallery of the social group to which the family belonged, its social circle. It would be most correct to define this social group as “townspeople of average income engaged in professions requiring higher or secondary specialized education.” Almost everyone portrayed is in a private dress. There are almost no people in official uniforms. In some cases, it is possible to establish the profession of those portrayed (a nurse, an unknown man in the uniform of a railway engineer), but there are few of them, so it cannot be said that we are talking exclusively about the urban intelligentsia. Moreover, the boundary between the intelligentsia and the bureaucracy, as well as between the intelligentsia and the “philistinism”, is very arbitrary.

Based on a number of indirect signs, certain conclusions can be drawn about the daily life of a given social group. Thus, some portraits were made at Crimean or European resorts - quite typical vacation spots for an intellectual (more broadly, a city dweller) of average income. Noteworthy in this case is the analysis of those photographic studios where portraits were made. Many of the photographs were taken by large photographic firms, primarily in Moscow. For example, the above-mentioned studios “Photography of Dore”, “Photography of V. Chekhovsky”, “Photography of G.V. Trunov”, “Photograph by M. Konarsky”, “Photograph by Otto Renard”, “Photograph by P. Pavlov”, “Photograph by Franz Opitz”. Photographic studios of the northern capital are presented much more modestly (there are generally much fewer portraits made in St. Petersburg, since we are talking about the social circle of the Moscow family): in “Photographs of A. Lawrence”, “Photographs of Bollinger”, “Photographs of Bergamasco”, “Photographs of K. Shapiro" was made literally one portrait at a time. On the other hand, we have already talked about a representative range of products from provincial and untitled metropolitan ateliers. At the same time, there are very few enamel photographs; the vast majority of portraits are made in the most common formats (business, office, letterhead open letter), there is practically no colored photograph. In other words, we are talking about social group, whose representatives can afford to shoot in a good photographic studio (as well as the Levitsky family), but these are not the people who shoot only with chic and fashionable photographers. These are not the people who will pay for additional photographic services (enamelling, coloring, large format, etc.). Thus, portraits of unidentified persons from the Levitsky family archive are a complex that contains certain touches to the portrait of the everyday life of a domestic citizen of average income at the turn of the century.

Among the portraits of the Levitsky family archive, it is also difficult to find caricatured poses and bulging, almost crazy eyes, which contemporaries and researchers write about, and on the other hand, known from literature, the rampant surroundings (although there are certain examples), typical “blunders” in the work of photographers ( the background border is visible, the background and the clothes of the subjects do not match). Caricatured poses and wide eyes are absent, since we are talking about a social group for which photography in the studio is familiar. At the same time, he is known from literature and other collections of mass studio photographic portraits of the 1880-1910s. the standard of pose (the person being portrayed sits or stands so as to hold his back, two-level double portraits, composition of group portraits, etc.), of course, was preserved. In the literature, there are different points of view on the sources of this image standard (painting or theater), but its very existence and its stability are noted by all researchers. Standard techniques for portrait photography, developed in pre-revolutionary photographic studios, were adopted, with some changes, in Soviet studios and continued to exist. long years. Thus, in relation to photographic portraits from the Levitsky family archive, we can talk about a representative study of portrait standards, but not about a caricature of them. At the same time, we are talking about established stable standards of portraiture, which have a great and long future ahead of them.

In the context of comparing studio pre-revolutionary portraits from the Levitsky family archive with examples of “kitsch” and bad taste, from the point of view of contemporaries, known from literature (the abundant use of props to create an image, widespread at least from the beginning of the twentieth century (and to this day ) an attraction when the person being portrayed sticks his head into a painted background and finds himself with a sword drawn on a dashing horse or at the controls of an airplane, etc. ) it should be noted that the use of such techniques for photographs of a family archive is, in general, uncharacteristic. You can name at most a dozen images where the image of the person being portrayed is unsuccessfully constructed with the help of props (Fig. 5). No one stuck their head into the background at all. As for the painted backdrops that were used for photographic portraits, the Levitsky family archive contains the most typical, judging by the specialized literature, examples: a forest, a mountain lake, ancient ruins. However, there are few photographs using painted backdrops. Basically, these photographic portraits are characterized by the use of neutral backgrounds: dark, more often light. It should also be emphasized that in the family archive there is not a single example of photographic “kitsch” of the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. - sentimental and humorous images that were quite common throughout the entire period. Pictures where the subject communicates with himself or pictures with spirits are considered popular throughout all these decades. Sweet pictures (first cards, and later photo postcards) of beauties, children, pussies, etc. became fashionable in the 1890s. There is nothing like this in the Levitsky family archive.

Let me just say a few words about amateur portraits in the family archive. Quantitatively, this group of photographs is not so large compared to a studio portrait: only 121 objects (106 images) with a very wide chronological coverage - from the 1890s to the 1960s. But based on this group of images, we can also draw some conclusions about amateur portrait photography.

Amateur portraits appear in the Levitsky family archive in the 1890-1900s, and their number is small. The number of such photographs increases sharply already in the 1900-1910s. and reaches its peak in the 1920-1930s. In the post-war period, the number of amateur portraits drops sharply, which is a special case of a trend characteristic of the family photographic archive in question. In most cases these are individual portraits. Most of them depict members of V.A.’s family. Levitsky. 13 photographs of this group are attributed to D.A. Skvortsov. Among them are group and individual portraits of E.V. Levitskaya.

Using the example of amateur portraits from the Levitsky family archive, we can talk about three main ways in which amateur photography developed in the late 19th – first half of the 20th centuries. Firstly, it is an imitation of professional photography (in particular, mass studio photography). Secondly, an attempt to stop a moment, to capture a piece of life “as it is.” Thirdly, the creation of an image, in which case photography becomes a means of expressing a person’s worldview, and the techniques and standards of both amateur and professional photography become a field for experimentation or one of many tools; such photographs may be associated with the general artistic style of the era, but do not serve as examples of typical images (using the example of photographs by D.A. Skvortsov). I believe it is not an exaggeration to state that all three paths exist in amateur photography at the present time. It should also be emphasized that amateur photography creates its own image standards that are in circulation in a certain era. Using the example of portraits from the Levitsky family archive, we can talk about such photographs in relation to the post-war period (1950-1960s).

So, photographic portraits of the Levitsky family archive make up the majority (528 museum items out of 706) of the items in the family archive. Chronologically, they cover a whole century (1850-1950s). We are talking, first of all, about professional photography, or more precisely, about mass studio photographic portraits (mostly individual ones). The family archive, therefore, contains a representative complex of mass studio photographic portraits of the 1880-1910s, i.e. period when such a portrait was at the peak of its prevalence. This complex is representative not only in the number of photographs, but in the variety of shooting locations, in the number of photographic studios whose photographs were deposited in the family archive. In this context, it is possible to analyze those features of the culture of photographic studios of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which can be identified using the example of photographs from the Levitsky family archive. At the same time, it is very important to compare the portraits of the family archive with other collections of mass studio photographic portraits and its characteristics in written sources and specialized literature, since it also allows us to analyze what and why is not included in the family archive. In this case, the absence of additional processing of photographs (enamelling, coloring), photographic “attractions” and examples of photographic “kitsch” is very significant. In other words, a simple comparison of the phenomena of mass photography of the 19th – early 20th centuries. with the composition of the Levitsky family archive allows us to draw certain conclusions about the aesthetic views of family members, to characterize them as people who did not accept or love mass culture, but, like most of their contemporaries, used the products of mass photography in cases where they did not consider it using an epithet in the Chekhovian sense, “vulgar.”

At the same time, the complex of portraits in the Levitsky family archive also allows (which remains beyond the scope of this work) to talk about the interrelations between pre-revolutionary and Soviet professional portraits, as well as about the interrelations between professional and amateur portraits. Also, based on photographs from the family archive, it is possible to analyze the features of amateur photographic portraits of the 1900-1930s.

The importance of photographic materials in the corpus of documentary sources of a visual nature has long been recognized by historical science. Photographic documents are capable of conveying in detail and accurately the visible appearance of the objective world and recreating the visual side of facts. According to GOST 7.69-95 “SIBID. Audiovisual documents. Basic terms and definitions" (introduced 07/01/96), "a photographic document is an audiovisual document containing information, objects recorded on it using photographic technology in the form of separate photographic images."

The advantage of a photograph is its ability to simultaneously not only depict reality and talk about the impression it makes, but also document it.

The ability to document accurately recreate pictures of the surrounding world, clarity in the depiction of reality, due to the imitative, mimetic nature of photography, creates the illusion of general intelligibility and accessibility of the content of the latter. However, a photographic document cannot be considered an equivalent, a mechanical copy of reality. It bears both the features of the author’s individuality of the photo chronicler and signs of cultural conditioning and the historicity of photographic reality itself.

Photographic materials are sometimes capable of capturing deeper information than a material source, since they provide a visual representation not only of the thing itself, but also of the whole complex into which it is included: the synchronous environment of its existence, the ways in which a person interacts with it, etc. If we take into account that “a photograph certifies not only the moment captured in the photograph, but also all the events “before” and “after”,” then it should be recognized that, despite its static nature, it contains the potential for movement.

To group photographic materials on the book business, we can rely on the classification of photographic sources, which was developed by E.M. Evgrafov in his work “Film and photo documents as a historical source” (Moscow, 1973, p. 4). It is based on the content and nature of the captured objects. In accordance with these characteristics, photographic documents are divided into:

genre, showing individual moments of events or facts of social, industrial, everyday life;

specific, recording images of individual objects, areas;

portraits, depicting one or more faces.

The photo chronicle of books and bookmaking falls within the framework of this classification. It should be borne in mind that in some cases the line between groups is not so clear. For example, photographs representing portrait images against the background of the interior of a bookstore or printing house occupy a borderline position. In accordance with the goals of a specific historical and book study, it is possible to group photographic documents according to thematic, geographical, and chronological characteristics.

A photographic document as a material carrier of visual information has some features that must be taken into account when accessing it. This source in its origin undergoes two main phases, which are expressed in the processes of shooting and printing. Accordingly, the stages of existence of a photographic document are different carriers of the photographic image: negative - original (on film or glass), positive - original (author's photographic print). In order to protect the original from wear and tear, a countertype - a copy of the negative - can be made. The originality or copyability of the latter is established according to certain criteria, which makes it possible to identify Additional information source.

Analysis of a positive imprint is the main stage of getting to know a document. In archives and museums that have collections of photographic sources, integral part of the systematic card form and other catalogs is a control photographic print. The index card performs an important source study and heuristic function. In addition to the visual component, the annotation contains information about the date and location of the shooting, the author of the shooting, the type and size of the original; archive number is indicated. The title of the document states a brief description of its content. It should be noted that none of the above information is an absolutely mandatory card detail. For example, in sources from the 1920s. The author of the shooting is extremely rarely indicated; the date and attribution of the shooting is often established tentatively or erroneously, which requires additional source work: taking into account factual data, inscriptions, etc.

Even with a minimal presence of authorship in documentary photography, the visual and expressive technical means of photography are of great importance: format, focus, composition, sharpness, shutter speed, angle, lighting, etc. The visual perception of the image, and, consequently, the nature and volume of the information read, depends on them.

When studying the external features of photo sources, the form of their existence must be assessed. In particular, a photograph pasted on a passe-partout most often speaks of its representative character. These include group photographs of congress participants, members of societies, etc. (for example, a photograph of participants in the 1st All-Russian Bibliographical Congress dated December 6, 1924, stored in the N.N. Orlov collection in the Manuscripts Department of the Russian State Library). These photographs are usually kept in the personal archives of the figures depicted in them.

Iconographic materials made in the genre of ceremonial portraits, in which the character is often depicted in an official setting, are of a similar nature. These include, for example, a photograph of the director of the Book Chamber N.F. Yanitsky 1926 or a photograph of the director of the Pravda printing house S.S. Semenov 1929, stored in the archives.

When working with photographic documents as historical sources, it is advisable to introduce the concept of photoscripts, by analogy with film scripts that have become established in source studies (see section 5.1). Written texts included in the structure of a photographic document help to date, attribute, and localize it; they clarify the plot of the photograph and explain what is happening.

The most common texts of photoscripts are slogans, posters, advertisements, signs, emblems. Thus, interesting observations are revealed when comparing slogan texts in photographs of book markets and exhibitions of the 1920s and 1930s. In the first case, they are festive, rhymed, and often funny: “Books are sweeter than honey cake for children,” “Every literate person needs to have a library,” “Every people is weak in ignorance.” With a book you are a master, without a book you are a slave” and others. However, already from the beginning of the 1930s. the slogans are politically oriented phrases, statements by Stalin: “Greetings to Soviet schoolchildren,” “Higher is the banner of the struggle for proletarian music,” “There is no place for an apolitical textbook in a Soviet school.” In one of the photographs from 1932, on a children’s book kiosk in Catherine Park, the slogan is: “The Soviet book is a link in the solidarity of the world proletariat.” It is characteristic that the visuals also correspond with the photo scripts: in the first case - festive crowds of people, in the second - half-empty bazaar areas with a number of similar kiosks.

The visual representation of past reality contains great analytical and synthesizing potential. When studying a specific photographic source, the following stages of analysis of its pictorial side can be distinguished: 1) general familiarization with the document, 2) identification of the figures and background of the photograph, 3) awareness of the relationship between the parts and the whole, 4) synthesis of the perception of the image. Analysis operations involve determining the object, time, place, and authorship of the shooting; establishing the degree of reliability of the information produced by the source; understanding the degree of novelty of the source data in comparison with sources of other types and types. At the synthesis stage, their significance for the research topic and their place among other sources are revealed.

When analyzing photographic documents, it is important to take into account their social nature, which is clearly manifested when compared with a related type - film documents. Film sources have a more pronounced sociogenic character. Cinema is initially designed to be played to large audiences and to be widely distributed socially and geographically. It cannot be created outside of this goal, “on the table.” The status of cinematographic production necessitates the presence of an order in one form or another. On the contrary, photographic sources that also reflect time in a figurative and formal manner may not be in demand in their era. Remaining unknown to contemporaries, they will be deprived of part of their “pre-source” existence, therefore, incomplete as historical sources. Portability, relative cheapness and the individual nature of photography provide ample opportunities for proactive documentation of events, objects, and characters. This feature significantly expands the field of photographic recording and enhances the cognitive capabilities of this source. (The above applies more to amateur rather than official photography, since under Soviet conditions there were regulatory and legislative restrictions when photographing various events and objects).

Some researchers have noticed a peculiar historiographical component of photo documentation. The author not only records documentary moments that acquire historical value over time, not only creates a bank of visual data that can be used in different ways both in current and subsequent culture, but also acts as a researcher of a certain topic. This component, most often not expressed explicitly, creates additional difficulties when studying photographic documents as historical sources.

Such an area of ​​photo documentation as portrait images has important cognitive significance. Group portraits are extremely interesting for a historian. They make it possible to determine the quantitative, personal, social and age-sex composition of various groups of book workers, delegates to congresses and conferences, etc. Some of the photographs reveal a special esprit de corps of the community. (As an example, we can point out a group photograph of members of the Russian Society of Friends of the Book, deposited in the N.N. Orlov fund in the manuscript department of the Russian State Library (OR RSL). 37 people are represented on it. There are smiles on the faces of many; in the center of the group is the famous bust of Voltaire, who was present at all meetings of the RODK in the 1920s)

When studying this type of source, one should take into account the semantics of group photographs from different eras: the location and poses of people, surroundings, facial expressions, costumes, etc. These meaningful details and signs of the era are historical and subject to a certain cultural canon and tradition.

A special form of organizing photographic documentary sources is a photo album. It is distinguished by a special orientation of the material, known for its tightness. The meaning of each of the photographs included in it is fully revealed in the context of the overall array.

From the point of view of the reliability of specific historical realities recorded on photographic film, a specially constructed genre shot with posing characters is less interesting. However, the educational potential of photographic documents with obvious signs of staging should not be underestimated. The multivalence of photographic materials in terms of information content gives them documentary and historical value in this case as well. Here it is important to determine the fact, purpose and nature of the mise-en-scene. It is noteworthy that the very production of photographs in the 1920s and 1930s. different types. If for the 1920s, when photography had not yet become an ordinary event, the direct gaze of characters into the lens was common, then later the staged shot begins to carry a symbolic and ideological load. The image is deliberately generalized and typified. The subjects of the shooting never look into the camera; they are supposedly taken by surprise at work or in everyday life, but the nature of the display and interpretation of reality does not give rise to a feeling of spontaneity, immediacy of action, or natural behavior.

In a number teaching aids and scientific publications, photographic documents were subjected to source examination. The issues of typology and methods of working with photo sources are most fully discussed in the doctoral dissertation and publications of V.M. Magidova. He comprehensively explored the problems of source criticism of film, photo, and sound documents; their identification and selection, classification, issues of origin, etc. V.M. Magidov formulated the most important specific features of photographic documents as one of the means of capturing reality through photographic equipment, among them: the ability to instantly record the facts of real, transitory life; limited possibilities of cognition outside the photo frame; the relationship between the aesthetic and cognitive value of photographic documents, etc.

In book studies, the attitude towards photography as an auxiliary, illustrative material that complements and “decorates” the text of the study has been preserved to this day. As an independent source on the history of the book, photographic documents have not become the subject of scientific understanding. Most actively reproduced in publications is iconographic photographic material, as well as specific book visual attributes - title pages and covers of publications. The latter ensures the visibility of historical and book studies and plays an important role in the promotion of book culture. However, these images cannot be recognized as historical sources, except in cases where the subject of the photograph - the source in the form of a publication - has been lost and is not available in public and private libraries. (An analogy would be publishing a photograph of a writer’s manuscript).

The main array of archival photographic materials on the history of the book is contained in the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents and in the Central Archive of Audiovisual Documents in Moscow. The information necessary to identify photographic documents is concentrated in a systematic catalogue. Inside the sections, the cards are arranged alphabetically, subject-wise, and geographically in chronological order. A heuristic feature of historical book materials, resulting from their object-subject status, is that the search for documents cannot be limited exclusively to the sections: “Print”, “Publishing Houses”, “Book Trade”, “Libraries”, etc. Information about individual documents is recorded in the sections: “Everyday life”, “Holidays”, “Prison” and others. The corpus of portrait and genre photographic sources is supplemented by materials deposited in the personal funds of literary figures in the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the Central Archive of Documentary Collections of Moscow and other archives.

Analysis of the content of the identified photographic documents (see Appendix 2) made it possible to identify several subject-thematic complexes that illuminate various aspects of the book’s existence. The most representative in volume and the most emotionally intense is the block of materials on book trade. Most of them date back to the 1930s. Photos capture appearance and shop windows, kiosks, bookstores. Photo sources provide an opportunity to get a visual representation of various types of bookselling enterprises: the House of International Books, which used the self-service method (1933); Mogiza model store (1935).

The activities of the Moscow children's book store (1934-1935) are covered in sufficient detail in photographic materials. Work among children-readers and children-shoppers was given priority in the 1930s. great attention. The authors of the filming came to the attention of the interior of a spacious store with low counters with steps specially designed for children; classes with children of teachers, etc.

The mass forms and methods of book distribution in the 1920s and 1930s received widespread coverage: the sale of books on credit (1929), non-store forms of trade, including mobile booksellers and booksellers. Using photographic documents, you can study in detail the various equipment and equipment used by book peddlers: vans, carriages, carts, display cases, boxes, boxes, suitcases, bags, satchels. Most of the photographs devoted to the work of collective farm kiosks are lively and authentic. For example, a photograph from 1933 shows collective farmers surrounding the kiosk of the Novo-Annensky branch of the Book Center. Photographic documentation provides insight into the additional non-trading work carried out by the kiosks. For example, in another photo on a kiosk you can see a poster: “Here you can get advice on how to conclude a collective agreement in 1933.”

A special group consists of photographs depicting bookselling services to such an important category of book consumers as Red Army soldiers.

Various photographs of booksellers from the 1920s. deposited in the G.I. fund Porshnev in the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPNTB SB RAS) (Novosibirsk). Here are presented the facades and interiors of the trading floors of Gosizdat enterprises, types of various exhibitions. Particularly highlighted in the collection are photographs detailing the activities of the book market on Tverskoy Boulevard in Moscow (thematic stands and counters, theatrical performances and attractions, a book vending machine, etc.). Of exceptional value are unique photographs from the 1930s, which depict the library of the NKVD camp during the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.

Of great source value are photographs of the ruins and stalls of second-hand book dealers near the Kitai-Gorod wall and on Mokhovaya Street, near the grille of the first Moscow State University (1928, 1933). The significance of these images is that they document the vibrant urban environment in which trade took place. They visibly confirm the evidence from other sources about the interest of buyers in the books displayed on the shelves. So, for example, in the chapter “At the Kitai-Gorod Wall” in the memoirs of L.A. Glezer’s “Notes of a second-hand bookseller” (Moscow, 1989, p.9) contains an undated photograph of a bookstore with people crowding around it. From the photographs one can judge the nature of the book display; On one of them the names are visible (in particular, the works of J. London).

The second-hand book theme is complemented by photographs depicting the interior of the exemplary antique store Mogiza (1935, 1937).

Among the stories, a group of photo sources dedicated to the propaganda and distribution of books at book markets, demonstrations, etc. stands out in terms of volume and content. An addition to the extensive body of film materials on this topic are photographs that capture the book market on Tverskoy Boulevard from different plans and angles, however, compared to film sources, they do not provide new touches in the coverage of this scene. Nevertheless, these documents must be taken into account as a fact of active and purposeful photographic recording important event in cultural life.

Of greater interest is a series of seven photographs dedicated to the demonstration on Printing Day (1929). This story was not reflected in other sources. Photos captured a massive procession through the streets of Moscow of joyful, laughing children and adults, with posters, models of books, drums and loudspeakers. Passers-by are visible on the sidewalks of Tverskaya Street watching the procession. In the columns of demonstrators one can see models of books by Chekhov, Barto, Zhitkov, “Young Mechanic”, “Young Bookbinder”, “Building Flying Models”, etc. On the poster you can read the slogan: “A thicker book, a simpler font, a larger print - more fun to read.” "

Using the example of comparing a selection of four photographs “Library Collector of Glavpolitprosvet” (1926) with the story of “Kinopravda” No. 19 (1924) about the same institution, we can see the difference in the representation of reality between two related types of sources. Photographic documents provide images of the unloading, disassembly, and placement of large packs of brochures on shelves. A similar situation was filmed by the authors of the documentary, but it is presented with vivid details and plot twists that cannot be captured by a camera. In particular, workers are shown talking at a table; visitors present documents to the collector's employees, who direct them to another room, etc.

Received wide coverage in photographic documents library topics. Primary attention is paid to displaying mass working libraries, club reading rooms, and factory libraries. The librarianship of the provinces is abundantly represented: the central region, the Volga region, the Northern Black Sea region, and Siberia. Photographs give an idea of ​​the general situation, details of premises, equipment, readers, staff, and in some cases - about library holdings.

Some photographs are interesting with unexpected details that reveal known facts in a new way. So, in a snapshot of times civil war, showing the reading room in the Red Army club, on the wall next to the portraits of Lenin, Trotsky and Marx hangs a poster: “We humbly ask Mr. readers should not move magazines and newspapers to other rooms and should not take them with them.” The photoscript indicates that during this period Red Army clubs occupied the premises of city and other libraries.

Active methods of library service to the population received coverage: delivery of books to readers' homes; mobile workers, collective farm, city libraries; reading rooms on transport. There are photographs of books being read out loud.

A separate group of subjects consists of photographs taken in correctional labor institutions and showing prisoners reading in libraries and reading rooms (Lefortovo Correctional Home, Belomorstroy). The collection of the publishing house “History of Factories and Plants” in the State Archive of the Russian Federation contains photographs of A. Velsky and A.G. Lemberg, not included in the famous book “The White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin. History of Construction" (Moscow, 1934), which presents several photographs of the library and readers.

An important addition to written and cinematic sources can be photography of reader conferences with the participation of writers: A.A. Fadeeva, A.S. Novikova-Priboya, Yu.N. Libedinsky, SM. Gorodetsky and others.

Much more poorly covered in photographic documents editorial and publishing activities. This can be explained by the lack of outwardly bright and expressive visuals and the lack of external manifestation of production processes. In the materials of the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Funds and Documents (RGAKFD), little attention is paid to Gosizdat; it mainly shows the official celebration of the publishing house’s anniversary in 1929. The limited evidence of the activities of Uchpedgiz, Detgiz and the Young Guard dates back to the 1930s. and reflect the preparation of textbooks in national languages, the work of editors with authors, and the involvement of readers in the discussion and evaluation of manuscripts.

The RGAKFD houses a significant thematic complex representing printing industry. The photographic film recorded general and close-up plans of the 1st Exemplary Printing House, the Red Proletary factory, Izvestia, Printing House and others. The activities of Pravda, the largest Soviet printing house of the 1930s, received the most complete coverage. The workshop equipment and moments of production processes are captured in detail.

As a separate group of photographs, there are frames that recorded the printing of revolutionary literature in foreign, in particular, oriental languages, which was an important element of Soviet international policy. Particularly interesting is the filming of a Chinese typesetting workshop, with equipment adapted to vertical arrangement lines of text.

In addition to the printing theme, there are photographic documents deposited in the museum part of the archive of the Red Proletarian printing house. Unfortunately, the state of the enterprise museum currently does not allow the materials in it to be fully studied and introduced into scientific circulation. Based on a review of the available exhibits, 42 negatives from the 1930s were identified, including glass plates on which various production processes and worker training were recorded.

In general, the very nature of the object of photographic documentation in printing gives rise to a more uniform visual range than in other areas of the book business.

The funds of the Central Archive of Audiovisual Documents of Moscow (CAADM) open an unexpected and unknown page in the history of books of the 1920-1930s era. In the collection of photographer A.V. Motylev presents the life of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf in its various manifestations, including the work of members of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf in the printing house, their recreation in the library. You can get an idea of ​​the premises, equipment, volume of production, and personnel of a small printing house of the company.

Photo documents clearly show such an important form of Soviet book propaganda, as book exhibitions of different ranks - from store and workshop to all-Union. These materials allow you to see exhibition equipment and evaluate methods and approaches to presenting books in different years. Some of the exhibitions are presented in great detail with a series of photographs, approaching the genre of a photo report. Such, for example, is a series of frames dedicated to the book exhibition at the House of Printing (1928). The RGACFD has kept a photograph taken at the anniversary exhibition of the State Publishing House in 1929, depicting M. Gorky, head of the State Publishing House A.B., in the group of guests. Khalatova. Another plan is presented in a photograph preserved in the archives of G.I. Porshnev, one of the exhibition organizers.

The RGACFD has identified several photographic documents that reveal the features of the work of the Children's Book Museum for 1932-1937. A certain limitation of these photographs in comparison with film materials and written sources is obvious. The photographs depict groups of children reading at the table and writing in a guest book. The main interest lies in the photograph, which clearly demonstrates one of the diverse methods of exhibition work used in the Museum. The guide was filmed with a special device with two windows and the inscription “Guess where from.” Since such a “book answerer” was first used in 1929 at an exhibition of Soviet children's books, this indicates the successful use of a successful experience (the photograph is dated 1932).

Based on photographic documents, one can get a certain idea of ​​​​the appearance of the Moscow and regional Houses (Palaces) of books (prints). The iconography of book enterprises, as well as the iconography of Moscow streets and squares (RGAKFD, TsAADM, photo libraries of the Museum of the History of Moscow and the State Scientific Research Museum of Architecture named after A.V. Shchusev) corresponds with the type of postcard products on this topic.

Photo album No. 252 “Academy of Sciences of the USSR - XVII Congress of the CPSU (b)” (1934) is stored in the RGACFD. It includes more than 200 photographs highlighting various aspects of the Academy's activities. Among them there are images of the typesetting shop in the academic printing house and the interior of the bookstore of the publishing house of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The latter is interesting for its striking difference from the premises of ordinary bookselling enterprises of that time (a table with a tablecloth, a lamp with a lampshade, etc.). It is noteworthy that in the official album the photograph emphasizes the mood of comfort and the intelligent atmosphere of the store.

In the collection of photo albums of the film and photo section of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History, there are several storage units that present materials on the history of the book. In particular, in the album “To Comrade Delegate of the Second Congress of the Third Communist International from the Moscow Committee of the R.K.P. July 27, 1920" there is a photograph of a large group of people, including children, with CentroPrint ribbons over their shoulders. The photo album “Palace of Labor” (1919), donated to the Swedish communist O. Greenlund, shows the Palace library. One of the albums reflected the activities of propaganda trains. These photographs allow us to expand the source base of this story, since none of them has any analogy with known photographic and film documents.

Unusual and interesting photographic material is contained in a scan album of Moscow's Gorky Street before its reconstruction and the demolition of many houses in the mid-1930s. In this source, stored in the photo library of GNIMA named after. A.V. Shchusev, consistently captured the facades of all bookstores located on the central street of Moscow in the first half of the 1930s. The document provides a unique opportunity to comprehensively determine the exact topographical location of bookselling enterprises and visually present them in an urban environment that has long ceased to exist.

Deserving special attention are photographic materials that, although not related to the field of book publishing, speak about the specifics of the existence of books. So, from the mid-1930s. in everyday use it has become a symbol of a certain status of a person, a sign of integrity, clear evidence of improved living conditions and prosperity. In genre photographs representing characters in a home interior, there are always shelves or a bookcase with books. In one case - in the photograph “Room of a gas plant worker in B. Kazenny Lane.” (1939) - you can see the collected works of V.I. Lenin, crowned with portraits of Stalin and Kalinin. In another photo - “Family of the SI driver. Kozlova in her apartment" - a family of five is shown reading at the table.

Since the mid-1930s. In the corpus of photographic documents, plots are rooted, which are characterized by a certain set of solution techniques and a traditional implementation scheme. The usual genre scene of a “shopper in a bookstore” loses its spontaneity and bears traces of direction. A characteristic feature of such photographs is the mandatory introduction of the subject of the photograph by name and place of work (profession, social status). The hero is usually filmed buying a book that has a high social status: collection dedicated to the memory of SM. Kirov, literature on elections to the Supreme Council, collected works of V.I. Lenin, etc. In photo documents on library topics from the mid-second half of the 1930s. The iconic nature of the book, reading, library as an authoritative ideological symbol is also emphasized. As in bookselling photographic materials, the “correct” selection of library collections is emphasized (“literature on the issue of the Stalinist constitution”), and the readers’ belonging to a respected category of workers is emphasized (“Stakhanovite M.N. Gusev”).

Valuable source information is contained in the visual range of professional periodicals. This extensive photo complex reproduces the interiors and appearance of book trade enterprises at all levels, illustrates the forms and methods of book distribution, advertising and book promotion used in different years. The abundant iconography of ordinary bookselling workers, captured on the pages of periodicals, allows us to get closer to recreating their generalized sociocultural portrait, which is important, given the lack of information on this issue.

Analysis of the subject matter of photographic materials shows that in 1927-1929. the subjects were dominated by book markets in Moscow and other cities (dozens of photographs), as well as topics of vocational education, book exhibitions and celebrations of the tenth anniversary of Gosizdat. Non-store forms of trade of Gosizdat are also displayed - kiosks on the streets, in enterprises, in educational institutions and so on. Since 1930, expression in the display of public events has declined. In subsequent years, photographs in the magazine documented those areas of development of the book trade that were recognized as priorities at different stages. Mainly mass forms and methods of book promotion are reflected. Non-store trade is represented by kiosks in factories, political departments of MTS, collective farms, military camps, and parks. The work of book carriers, propaganda vans, and propaganda wagons is widely shown.

Since the mid-1930s. the center of gravity is transferred to photographing the interiors and windows of the best bookstores (House of Children's Books, House of International Books, stores of scientists, Soviet writers, antiques), as well as customer service processes. For example, an interesting detail is conveyed by a photograph of the interior of the Mogiza store No. 52, on which a poster is visible: “Attention! Students of the Medical Institute are provided with literature in installments.” This was a reflection of a change in course towards the priority development of the retail sector of the book trade.

In the 1930s In Soviet periodicals, new genres of photojournalism are being developed. In “Book Front” and “Soviet Bookman” such materials were written by TASS correspondent A. Bazilevich. A photo report was published about the release of stable textbooks (1934), a photo sketch about child buyers (1937). A characteristic feature of the embodiment of these genres was the unnaturalness and obvious orchestration of the recorded scenes. The main thing in photographs becomes not their informational, but their interpretative function, which is expressed in the transfer of meaning from a visual element to a textual one - a signature.

So, for example, the photo essay “On a day off in Moscow bookstores” (1936) is provided with the following captions under the photographs: “Stakhanovite mechanic of the Avtoshtamp plant” Boyarsky A.M. purchased "Dead Souls". He saw the play at the Art Theater and now wants to read it”; “Professor of Economic Sciences PEI Gosplan of the USSR Vanke ML. registered as a regular customer in the store for scientists. He received another notification about new books. Going there, the professor bought Mommsen's History of Rome, Dosev's Theory of Reflection, and Dahmen's The Politics of Roosevelt. Taking this opportunity, the professor decided to look through the literature card index.” In this way, the content of the image was programmed. In the text of the caption to intra-magazine photographs of the 1930s. the assessment of the represented event or fact of the book business was latently laid down.

When considering these materials as historical and book sources, one should separate their narrative and semantic plans. A photograph can truthfully convey the fact of a buyer visiting a store, a Stakhanovite book-seller visiting a home, the location of departments in trading floor etc. However, the fact of this or that behavior of the buyer, his interaction with the seller, etc. cannot be considered as verified. The need to take into account two plans is prerequisite source criticism of photographic materials in periodicals.

So, we can conclude that the book is captured in photographs of a wide thematic and genre spectrum, although in general the photographic documentation of various subjects is fragmentary. The introduction of archival and published photographic materials into scientific circulation allows us to expand the source field of research. Giving a sensual visual representation of the facts of historical reality, they participate in the formation of historical and book knowledge at the factual and substantive levels.

As a source on the history of the book, it has not attracted special attention from researchers.

The classification features of documentary postcards can be considered the content and nature of the captured objects, which was proposed for photographic documents by E.M. Evgrafov, who divided them into genre (event), species and portrait. According to their form, photo postcards can be presented in the form of original photographs printed from a negative in a small edition, and in the form of reproductions printed using a printing method.

When working with postcards as a historical source, it should be taken into account that they belong to the group of replicated photographic documents and have such features as being publication-oriented and the presence of “co-authors” of the document (photographer - publisher - typographer). This is the fundamental difference between postcards and original photographs. The main social function of postcards as a type of postal correspondence is associated with a number of external features of the source, expressed in the presence of a postal form: two sides (address and illustrative), space for text and stamps, a dividing strip, a publisher's stamp, etc. These details help with dating, attribution of postcards, and determining the source of the shooting. It should be noted, however, that the output information for postcards from the 1920s and 1930s. very stingy. The year of manufacture is not always indicated in them. An indirect dating feature can be considered the inventory number of the postcard in the collection of the art publications department of the Russian State Library (IZO RSL), which in all cases where the date is fixed, coincides with it. In the 1920s The author of the shooting was not indicated; later this attribute became almost mandatory.

Another feature of postcard materials was that within the circulation, due to the peculiarities of the printing process, different quality of products was observed: unequal print clarity, different shades of paint. Moreover, sometimes even a slight difference in plan and angle, and, consequently, in the scale and location of the subject, is noticeable. Therefore, whenever possible, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with several copies of the same publication.

The main source information on the history of the book, contained in postcards, is contained in views of Moscow and Leningrad. The urban view as a historical source can provide data on a wide range of issues. It allows you to identify the topographic location of a particular object; determine the exterior of buildings (including the appearance of storefronts) in a synchronous manner. A high-quality image makes it possible to feel the atmosphere of the urban environment, the aura surrounding the object under study, in its relationship with a person. The noted circulation of postcard products, in contrast to “easel” photography, to a greater extent than the latter, speaks of the hierarchy of photographic objects, their comparative value for contemporaries, and the directions of their propaganda.

In museum and archival collections, such material is usually arranged by topographic units, which makes it easier to identify.

In postcards of the 1920-1930s. The book theme is quite widely represented. First of all, these are bookselling enterprises, since they, in comparison with other book-related buildings, most actively shape the urban landscape and are closest to the consumer printed products. It is no coincidence that almost all the images in front of bookstores show people looking at the windows.

The most representative views in this group are the views of Pushkinskaya (Strastnaya) Square and Gorky (Tverskaya) Street. On postcards from 1933 and 1935. The largest two-story bookstore, the House of International Books, is presented from different angles. The techniques for decorating large shop windows are clearly visible: frontal display of books, portrait of I.V. Stalin and other visual elements. By general impression, in 1935 the store's decor became more formal and drier. In 1933, the sign “Book House for foreign workers in the USSR” was placed on the pediment, in 1935 - “International Book House - House of International Books”. The angles of both shots are different, which allows us to perceive the view of the store in a more three-dimensional way. The date of filming can be determined quite accurately from the poster of the Tsentralny cinema on the opposite (later demolished) side of Gorky Street.

The views of the Kuznetsky Bridge show the Central Book Warehouse of the Moscow City Council, the publishing house “New Moscow” (no later than 1926), and on Tverskaya Street the bookstore “Bezbozhnik” (1930).

Among the Leningrad views, the House of Books should be noted, which, judging by a considerable number of publications, was one of the city’s attractions. Particularly representative is a postcard from 1930, which allows us to study in detail the nature of the book display in the windows and evaluate the overall solemn and elegant appearance of the “House under the Globe.”

Libraries appear among the photographs. Thus, there is a view of the Institute of Library Science of the Library named after. IN AND. Lenin (1927). The hall of especially valuable books of the State Public Library named after. M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Some photo postcards border on event (story) postcards. Such are, for example, postcards from Izogiz’s “Industrial Series” of 1931-1932, showing a rotary machine in the printing house of the Rabochaya Gazeta and Linotype in the Pravda printing house. In addition to demonstrating the equipment, there is an image of workers during production operations. After the opening of the new largest printing plant in the country for the newspaper Pravda, it began to appear more often than others on postcards, along with the Izvestia building, which since 1927 has remained one of the landmarks of Moscow. Another large Moscow printing house is also represented - “Red Proletarian”.

Compared to pre-revolutionary photographic images of species, postcards from the Soviet era provide fewer opportunities for study. At the beginning of the 20th century. phototypes of "Scherer, Nabholz and Co" and P. Von Girgenson produced many views of the center of Moscow, in which Nikolskaya, Mokhovaya, Myasnitskaya and other streets are presented in great detail, including detailed displays of bookstores and printing houses. Their distinctive feature was that a person was always present in them, not only as a typical type, but also personally. The atmosphere of Nikolskaya Street and Prolomnye Vorota (Synodal printing house and bookstore, trade of I.P. Silin) ​​was especially well recreated. On one of the postcards depicting the bookstore “Jurisprudence” I.K. Golubev, you can see how the clerk, standing on a chair, places books on the outer display case; a passerby examines another display case. Views of Mokhovaya Street (I.M. Fadeev), Neglinny Proezd (A.S. Suvorin, P.I. Yurgenson) are presented. Undated postcards dedicated to the Synodal Printing House depict the interiors of the typesetting room with typesetters at work, as well as the bookstore.

By the 1930s people on postcards turn into staff figures. In species images they begin to dominate general plans highways being reconstructed, and bookstores as such are becoming almost indistinguishable.

Another type of postcard array is advertising materials. The commercial and propaganda character determines external form of these postcards: expanded text, bright drawing or font design, an indication of the terms of subscription. Analysis of an array of advertising materials shows that periodicals, not books, had priority in distribution.

In general, the limitation of the plot repertoire of book-themed postcards within the framework of one main variety allows them to be used as a historical and bibliological source within very narrow limits, although it does not close off the possibilities of such use.

Visual documents as special sources of the history of everyday life

When reconstructing pictures of the past, the historian usually relies on written documents, using, if necessary, also archaeological material and visual evidence. Among traditional historians, such appeals to visual evidence are of an auxiliary nature; often they simply illustrate what has been said. It is often felt that in fact one can completely do without them; they are only additionally visually analyzed and reproduced on the basis of classical historical documents. It is no exaggeration that most historians are uncomfortable with visual materials as primary sources. They rarely approach their analysis as critically as they typically do when referring to written documents. They have learned to analyze and interpret written sources, but there are not so many people among them who are trained to interpret and analyze photography, cinema and video. The conscious and established habit of working with texts rather than with images has, to some extent, given rise to some disdain and distrust of visual documents as a historical source. To some extent, both the subjectivity and egoism of the researcher affected him: often studying documents, he creates in his imagination his own picture of this or that fact, event, phenomenon. And a figurative document, as an authentic image of an era, often not only corrects, but also destroys the composition of the statement.

But photography, film, video are completely self-sufficient historical sources that require the same source criticism and appropriate methodological tools as written documents. Visual documents are important not only for the fixed visual image that they preserved, but also for the information encoded in them. It can be open, closed, hidden, etc. A comprehensive study, extraction and use of information from such sources allows the researcher not only to supplement his judgments about history, but also to look at it in the literal sense of the word3. They reveal historical events and facts in the form of specific static or dynamic visual images.

The visual range of information perception is as important as the auditory, tactile, and intellectual ones. Direct recording of historical information at the moment of action is one of the main properties of the vast majority of varieties of visual sources. These documents (photos, films, videos), firstly, figuratively reflect the specifics of time and place; secondly, they themselves are artifacts (casts, traces) of this era, therefore, its direct documents (despite the visual range or panorama they offer); thirdly, the information encoded in them requires semantic (sign) reading and understanding. Accordingly, they are often not inferior in information content to printed or written sources. Due to their “visuality” they should be given preference.

Until the mid-19th century, textual and technical documentation were the only ways to consolidate information. But the middle of the 19th century brings to humanity a fundamentally new way of recording information about the surrounding reality, which gave rise to the new kind documents. A photograph appears (from the Greek foto - light and grafo - writing) - a visual document created photographically.

The first to learn how to fix an image obtained on the screen of a camera obscura was the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niepce, who in 1826 took the first photograph from the window of his room.

With the advent of the twentieth century. With new specific forms of photography, the range of its social functions has also expanded significantly. There is such a thing as photo documentation.

Photo document is a document created photographically. The appearance of photographic documents dates back to the first half of the 19th century and is associated with the invention of photography.

Photographic documents have a significant feature - this type of document appears at the time of events and at the scene of events. This feature gives photographic documents great value. Photographic documents are visual and accurate, which is why they are widely used in many fields of human activity: science, art, technology, etc. For example: x-rays in medicine, photography in judicial practice, photo and microphotocopying to obtain copies of documents, etc.

A photograph is obtained on photosensitive materials in which, under the influence of light rays reflected from objects and focused by a lens, a hidden, and after appropriate chemical processing, a visible black-and-white or color image of objects (photograph, card) is formed. Photographic recording is carried out using a camera (camera).

Depending on the functional purpose, photographs of general and special purposes are distinguished. The category of general-purpose photographs includes documentary, artistic, and amateur. Special-purpose photographs include scientific, technical, aerial, microphotography, X-ray, infrared, reproduced and other photographs.

Depending on the photosensitive material, photographs come in two types: silver halogen and silver-free. In silver halide photography, the photosensitive element is silver halide. In silver-free, non-silvered light-sensitive compounds. Silver halide photographs have become more widespread.

By color, photographic images are available in black and white and color. Until the 1930s, photography was primarily black and white, in which the image produced a highly fragmented metallic silver. In recent decades, color photography, in which the image is formed by three dyes, has become widespread. Such photography more fully conveys the diversity of the objects around us with their inherent colors and color shades, which is of great importance in both artistic and technical photography.

Based on the type of substrate and the material basis of the carrier, photographs are distinguished on flexible polymer (photo and film), rigid (glass plates, ceramics, wood, metal, plastic) and paper (photo paper). Photographs can be sheet (card) and roll (on reels, cores, reels) of various lengths and widths. The main material carriers of photography are film and paper.

By film size general purpose photographs are produced in flat format, unperforated reel and perforated reel. Flat format films have the same format as plates and are used in plate cameras. Reel-to-reel non-perforated films are produced in the form of a tape 61.5 mm wide and 81.5 cm long. They are wound on wooden spools together with a light-protective tape - leader. Perforated photographic film is available in 35mm width and 65cm length, including charging and refill ends. It produces 36 photographs with a frame size of 24x36 mm. It is wound on a reel and placed in a lightproof cassette.

The photosensitive layer of photographic paper is fine-grained, which makes it possible to obtain high optical density after development with a small amount of metallic silver formed. Photographic paper has a high resolution, and in a short development time (1-2 minutes) it produces a high-contrast image. Photographic paper differs in sensitivity, contrast ratio, density, color, surface nature, etc. Based on application, it is divided into general purpose photo paper, which is used in artistic and technical photography, and photo paper for technical purposes, which is used only in technical photography.

Photographic documents are organized into a photo library - a systematic collection of photographs, negatives or positives (transparencies) for the purpose of storing and issuing them to the user.

Photographs and transparencies (diapositive (Greek dia - through + Lat. positivus positive) (slide) - a positive photographic or drawn image on a transparent material (film or glass), intended for projection onto a screen) refer to photographic documents - one of the main types of film, photo and sound document . A photographic document contains one or more images obtained photographically. It is the result of documenting, using photochemical recording, phenomena of objective reality in the form of images.

Depending on the genre and purpose, they distinguish: fiction, chronicle-documentary, popular science, scientific photographic documents, as well as copies of ordinary documents obtained through photography and filming.

Depending on the direct or reverse tone, photographic documents are divided into negatives and positives (diapositive). Negative photographs are photographic images with a reverse transfer of the tonality of the photographed object, i.e. ones that actually make light colors look dark and dark colors look light. Positive photographs that directly convey the brightness or color of the subject.

Based on the material of the information carrier, they distinguish between photographic documents on glass or film, and positives on paper, film or glass (transparencies). The size and other characteristics of photographic plates, films and photographic paper are standardized.

The resistance of photographic films to external influences is determined by the composition of the emulsion layer. The most reliable are photographic films with a silver-containing emulsion: under ideal conditions they can be stored for up to a thousand years; black-and-white photographic films with other emulsions last from 10 to 140 years, and color films from 5 to 30 years. The most common are silver-halogen photosensitive storage media, the main advantages of which are storage capacity, spectral versatility, high information capacity, geometric accuracy and documentation of the image, simple and reliable hardware support.

An essential feature of a photographic document is that this type of document appears at the time of events and at the scene of events. This feature gives photographic documents great value. Photographic documents are visual and accurate, which is why they are widely used in many fields of human activity: science, art, technology, etc. For example: x-rays, photographs in judicial practice, photo and microphotocopying to obtain copies of documents, etc.

The use of micrographic technology expanded the scope of use of photographic documents. The result was documents on microforms. These are photographic documents on film or other media that require appropriate magnification using micrographic technology for production and use. Such documents include:

microcard - a document in the form of a microform on an opaque format material, obtained by copying onto photographic paper or micro-offset printing.

microfilm is a microform on a roll of photosensitive film with a sequential arrangement of frames in one or two rows.

microfiche - microform on transparent format film with a sequential arrangement of frames in several rows.

ultramicrofiche - microfiche containing copies of images of objects with a reduction of more than 90 times. For example, a 75x125 ultra-microfiche has a capacity of 936 book-size pages.

Recently, digital photographic process has been used in photographic documentation. It is devoid of many of the disadvantages of ordinary photography. One of the advantages digital photography is that the resulting image can be adjusted - change color, contrast, retouch, etc. In addition, a digital camera can be connected to a computer and its peripheral devices, and the resulting images can be transferred via the Internet.

Further trends in the preservation and use of images developed in several directions. This is, firstly, the use of photography as a memorable historical document, and secondly, its inclusion in the arsenal of scientific tools and evidence. But light painting began to develop most intensively in the field of everyday and historical portraits, and also, due to its apparent progressiveness compared to painting, as an alternative to works of fine art. It is especially important to distinguish these directions of photography in the initial period of its history, when it was difficult to draw a clear boundary between some of them. For example, landscape photography by geographers, ethnographers, and travel reporters often fulfilled not only its natural science functions, but also had an aesthetic character, and over time became a historical document. The same can be said about individual and group photographic portraits, taken for private, everyday purposes, but over time becoming scientific and documentary evidence of the era.

Lecture, abstract. Specifics of a photographic document as a historical source - concept and types. Classification, essence and features.