Alexander Rodchenko was a Russian artsist, sculptor, graphic artist and photographer between the two World Wars and was one of the founders of the Russian Constructivist movement. His goal through his photography was to “transform reality through mass communication.” He called his photography “factography” due to the truth he thought it conveyed. In his photography he recorded the cultural and technical revolutions occurring during the Soviet Union. He was interested in odd camera angles, radical foreshortening, close-ups, in shadows and odd vantage points.

   In class I attempted to replicate Rodchenko’s style and even looked to one of his own photographs as a model. The photograph I looked off of was entitled Stairway and was taken in 1930.

 

     The photo I took also shows a woman walking up the stairs, so it is similar in subject matter. I think Rodchenko was interested in the stairs because of the shadows and geometric shapes it makes. In his photo it sort of looks like she is crossing the sidewalk because of the black and white stripes the stairs make and the odd angle of the camera that makes the figure look as she is going sideways instead of up.

     In my photo I tried to get the figure in motion like she is about to take a step like Rodchenko’s woman. I also had her going up steps and took the photo from a high vantage point like he did. I was not able to get the same angle because there was nothing I could stand on behind Dana that would make me above her so I had to stand to her left. I also edited this photo to make it more like Rodchenko’s. His photo has high contrast and is in a square shape so I heightened the contrast and cropped the photo. I wanted to mirror the image so they were going the same direction, but I couldn’t figure it out on iPhoto. The most difficult thing about trying to recreate his image was trying to get a backwards shot of my figure that doesn’t show her face, also Rodchenko’s photograph is very simple but the Old College stairs and surroundings aren’t that simple. Even if my photo has more irregular shadows, I still think it has the geometric shapes and lines Rodchenko liked in his own work. I think if I could do this photo over again I would look for a stair case with something I could stand up high on near the base of it and give Dana a baby to hold, although she doesn’t like kids. I would have also tilted my camera more so it is not so straight on Dana, I think Rodchenko would have used a more unusual camera angle.