Alexander Rodchenko
1891–1956 · Russia / USSR
Changing the angle to change the way we see.
The story
A painter, graphic designer and photographer, Rodchenko took part in Soviet Constructivist experimentation. His photographs use high and low angles and diagonals to break with familiar viewpoints. They also circulated through posters, magazines and photomontages. This visual invention belongs to a specific political context: the construction of a new society and its contradictions accompanied the ways these images were made, published and received.
Understanding the work
Observe how a high or very low viewpoint changes the reading of a gesture. Then connect this graphic construction to its publication and the context of the commission.
Key works and series
Portraits; staircases; sports photographs; photomontages.
Sources & further exploration
Works in collections.
10 recordsPhotographs to explore on museum and library websites, with titles, dates and processes. Each link opens the collection record and its image where one is available.
- MoMA · 1940
Page layout for Mayakovsky Memorial issue of USSR in Construction, no. 7
Gelatin silver print
Aleksandr Rodchenko · Varvara Stepanova
