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DICKERMAN, LEAH ANNE ALEKSANDR RODCHENKO'S CAMERA-EYE: Lef Vision and the Production of Revolutionary Consciousness. Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Ann Arbor, UMI Dissertation Services, 1997, Softcover. Near Fine. Inscribed and signed by author on endpaper. Plates pages 303-430.; B&W Illustrations; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 430 pages; This dissertation examines Russian Constructivist Aleksandr Rodchenko's photography and photomontage in relation to theories of vision, subjectivity and artistic practice developed by Lef, a loose association of avant-garde theorists, writers and artists, grouped around the journals Lef (1923-25) and Novyi lef (1927-28). Perceiving a post-revolutionary subject still alienated by the persistent structures of bourgeois culture, Lef called for an art that would transform consciousness. The group synthesized the semiotic model of Russian Formalism with Marxism in a theory of art-making both overtly political and modernist, based on two key principles: (1) that form and technique were ideological, so a transformative art had to be grounded in new systems of representation; and (2) that-self-definition took place within praxis, so such an art would require labor in both its making and interpretation. Lef consistently held up Rodchenko as an exemplar of the revolutionary artist. Chapter One traces the theoretical and institutional antecedents of Rodchenko's career within Lef, and examines the layering of Formalist and Marxist discourses in Lef theory. The following chapters each examine a group of his works in relation to contemporary discussions within Lef, mapping a series of shifts. Chapter Two considers issues of portraiture and memorialization raised by the death of Lenin in 1924, and comparing, on the one hand, a model which attempted to tie the image to a fixed referent, and, on the other, Lef's insistence on infinite multiplicity. Chapter Three examines Rodchenko's oblique angle architectural photographs as an attempt to establish a distinctly technological--and transformative--mode of vision. Chapter Four considers factography, a model of realism developed in Novyi lef, as an inherently photographic mode based on a specific concept of document. Chapter Five looks at shifts in Lef writing and Rodchenko's work in relation to the ideological demands of the Five-Year Plans, describing a transformation that--despite the appearance of certain modernist devices--moves from open structures to more monological ones. As a whole, this dissertation considers issues of theory and practice raised by Rodchenko and Lef's efforts to use photography in a politically effective way. ; Signed by Author
Offered for US$ 75.00 by: The Avocado Pit - Book number: 47229