Europe

Victor & Sergiy Kochetov

Working women, builders of communism, are sorting corn...

1978

Working women, builders of communism, are sorting corn..., 1978

Having a press card allowed Viktor Kochetov to photograph freely in public places, access to which was strictly regulated for amateurs. Seeking a way to transgress the reportage canon, the Kochetovs employed a method of taking images of large gatherings that emphasize the structure and “patterns” of the imaginary collective body. His 1978 photo of women sorting corn, titled Working women, builders of communism, are sorting corn…, is organized on this principle: the scarfs on the workers’ heads are perceived as an element of uniform, which creates a visual rhythm. This is amplified by the artists’ application of intense local spots of hand-coloring. The very gesture of overpainting bears inherent naivety, creating the perspective needed to turn a propagandistic scene instrumentalized to glorify labor into an ironic glimpse at Soviet reality.

Viktor Kochetov became engaged in photography in 1968 and was also a professional photographer in film and photo laboratories. A significant part of his body of work was created together with his son Sergiy Kochetov. The Kochetovs' art practice is based on cooperation and the mutual exchange of ideas. Their collaborative work shifts focus to scenes of bold, non-staged reality of the late-Soviet to post-Soviet periods. The artists are well-known for their extensive usage of hand-coloring black and white prints, which is rooted in the tradition of "luriki"—enlarged, retouched, and often tinted photographic portraits. Both Viktor and Sergiy Kochetov belong to the Kharkiv School of Photography. Since the mid-70s, the artists associated with this movement have treated photography in an unconventional way, developing personal aesthetics by defying the cultural taboos associated with representation. Their experiments created an iconography that went against the codes of social realism used to glorify the repressive Soviet state.

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Victor & Sergiy Kochetov Working women, builders of communism, are sorting corn...

Victor & Sergiy Kochetov

Working women, builders of communism, are sorting corn...