Elena Petrovskaya

Works in the institute of philosophy, the editor-in-chief of her own “Siniy divan” magazine. The author of the following books:  «Undeveloped. Essays on the philosophy of photography”(2002), «Antiphotography» (2003).

Nowadays everyone having an expensive camera can say that he or she is a serious photographer. Nevertheless, which kind of photography is better - amateur of professional?

The attitude to photography changed radically long ago.  This change had to do not only with the abundance of cameras which fell into amateurs’ hands but rather with the fact that in the 60s photography in fact stopped being social practice of amateurishness. It was the time when changeover to new technologies began. As we know, digital cameras and video are not photography in the traditional sense of this word. It was noticed long ago that when we look at a photograph, it shows us the present but this present always belongs to the past or, as theorists say, it has already become postponed.

What do you mean?

For example, there is an approach to photography which excludes memory. Let’s distinguish two types of memory - historical memory (or historical and cultural memory) and memory which is individual experience. As for the former one, photography, of course, works for this type of memory. We recognize some details of the time in pictures. This is the simplest way to use photography in scientific (of pseudoscientific) purposes as the tool for identification of the past. Indeed, what can show us the clothes or details of interiors and external appearances more reliably than photography can?  From the other hand, beside social memory (or memory as a social institution) there is also individual memory. As for individual memory, photography contradicts it because photography is redundant. For example, there is some smell or other sensation which activates certain memory. And this memory captures us; we are taken prisoners by involuntary memory. As for photography, it shows everything at once and entirely.  This is the reason why we should distinguish these two types of memory. Modern artists do not employ photography the way it used to be employed. Something should be added to it. Perhaps, some elements of cinematograph. Something should disturb its solemnity and motionlessness. You know that the function of photography can be considered museum to a large extent. And there is nothing wrong with it. Now it is almost akin to painting. I mean that it is in one sense somewhat an archaic cultural practice.  Photography joined our idea of beauty, ousted traditional painting and replaced it. Paintings left exhibitions while photography came there. This is what embodies our need for art as such.  As a matter of fact, photography has changed greatly since it became a form of art. In the 19th century an artist could use a photograph of a real model instead of her of him. Those days painting was a high form of art. Today photography is. There is a certain paradox hidden here.

What then?

There are different genres of photography. First of all documentary photography, its scientific application.  You use photography as a source of information. Then comes posed photography. It often happens that documentary and posed photography, that is document and fiction, do no contradict each other. There are no grounds to think that photography depicting some historical period must be irreproachable in what concerns fiction. Now and then one has to synthesize or introduce something artificially in order to be more truthful in comparison with so called direct attitude to an object. There is no direct evidence. It is, like the time of perception,  always mediated by something. Robert Wilson comments upon his works in an interesting way: “You can put them in a fireplace. Then you will be able to look at them like you look at fire”. Indeed, there are many different ways to use these photographs.

What genre of photography is the most topical nowadays?

It seems to me that nowadays the most topical kind of photography is posed photography striving to express the spirit of the time. Jeff Wall, an artist, made a posed photograph «The dead soldiers’ conversation» dedicated to the Afghan war. There are mutilated bodies of dead soldiers who returned to life and the traces of a recent ambush depicted on the photograph.  It is somewhat eerie but at the same time very captivating.   It often happens that such works turn to be ever more powerful evidence than documentary shots which we look at, take into account and forget straight away although they can seem terrible, unpleasant and even repulsive. An unquestionable virtue of posed photographs is that they make us think. Lately photography has begun to perform more and more of interior design function. It is significant that when a photo gets into interior, we stop noticing it. It finds itself on the periphery of our attention. One shouldn’t hang a photograph like one made by Wall in a room. Interior presupposes other application of photography. It is the problem of interior itself. The peculiarity of photography does not reveal itself at all. There are such disturbing works expecting us to react constantly. As for interior, we prefer to see something soft, unobtrusive and cosy. In any case it should be pleasant. We will not hang a thing which is catching us constantly. After all it is the matter of an individual taste. As for me, for instance, I could hang the works by the photographers I am interested in. I’ve got the habit of placing small photographs on my table. I like to look at them again and again.

Is it possible to use documentary photographs for interior design?

Yes, it is possible, but the inhabitant of such an interior should be quite a sophisticated person. It is hard for me to imagine someone – but I still concede such a possibility – who could hang a series of such photos in his or her home. In fact it provokes the feeling of alienation because you kind of misuse your private space. It is, in fact, a home exhibition. 

How is photography used for interior design in Russia?

Now we are going through the transition period when a habit of collecting something and decorating interior is being formed. Many people do renovation in their houses –it doesn’t matter whether this renovation is Western-style or just ordinary one –  and then begin to think about how they would decorate the walls. It has become a custom in Russia that different cultural traditions meet. Just think of the Soviet period when there were carpets hanging on the walls in many flats.  Those who considered themselves people of taste called it philistinism. I think it is not so much philistinism (though there is something of it) as the roots of other – eastern – culture to which we are all very closely related.  In Western interiors walls are always decorated with something as well: it may be paintings, lithographs or reproductions. As for our country, people often hang a painting so high that it is not even possible to see it. This gesture is naïve but very revealing. People do not even know at what level a painting should be hanged so that it would be seen to a viewer that is a person living there in the house or flat.

Interview by Masha Shaburova

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