Primrose: Early colour photography in Russia

Interesting exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery looking at colour photography in Russian both from a technical point of view but also to show the social history of the country.

I loved the early works which were hand tinted. You couldn’t help but look at formal late Victorian pictures without a sense of foreboding as to what was to come. My favourite was a picture of a lady in a bustle out collecting flowers with a basket but behind he was a bare foot peasant boy carrying her bag and umbrella. All very Tolstoy and yes there was a photograph of Tolstoy!

It was interesting to see how this fashion for hand tinted family photographs came back at least twice in the twentieth century bringing with it a sense of nostalgia.

The revolutionary section was very purposeful. I liked the fact that the show included pictures of food which had been produced to go in cookery books to try to education the population on nutrition. The photographer had done his best with a pile of lemons.

From the early sixties there was a little bit more freedom and the photographs had a little more emotion and feeling to them. I liked one of a shop window with a display of red hats with the buildings opposite reflected in the glass.

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