“Boring Photography”: American New Topographics, Socialist Boredom, and Post-Soviet Deadpan Photography

This article looks at the exhibition New Landscape (2018), which was the first full-scale attempt to reflect on the popularity of “deadpan” photography in Russia in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. The show was partly modeled on the American exhibition New Topographics (1975). I lo...

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Main Author: Victoria Musvik
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: European Association for American Studies 2022-12-01
Series:European Journal of American Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/19138
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author Victoria Musvik
author_facet Victoria Musvik
author_sort Victoria Musvik
collection DOAJ
description This article looks at the exhibition New Landscape (2018), which was the first full-scale attempt to reflect on the popularity of “deadpan” photography in Russia in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. The show was partly modeled on the American exhibition New Topographics (1975). I look at the reasons why the American model was adopted and the earlier late Soviet and Russian photographic projects that dealt with boredom, including the most non-conformist ones, were avoided. I conclude that the reasons for this should be analyzed in the complex postcolonial context, which includes the acting out of collective trauma. In my analysis, I focus on the link between trauma and repressed aggression, violence, and resentment. I also show how Russian deadpan photography has opposed Putin’s regime and developed a pioneer methodology for reflecting on the post-Soviet condition. The American model was used to bring together a diversity of viewpoints, which reveals more complex and integrated ways of dealing with collective affect.
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spelling doaj-art-a5708ec64d814d4192390a19fcaaf4162025-01-06T09:08:19ZengEuropean Association for American StudiesEuropean Journal of American Studies1991-93362022-12-0117410.4000/ejas.19138“Boring Photography”: American New Topographics, Socialist Boredom, and Post-Soviet Deadpan PhotographyVictoria MusvikThis article looks at the exhibition New Landscape (2018), which was the first full-scale attempt to reflect on the popularity of “deadpan” photography in Russia in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. The show was partly modeled on the American exhibition New Topographics (1975). I look at the reasons why the American model was adopted and the earlier late Soviet and Russian photographic projects that dealt with boredom, including the most non-conformist ones, were avoided. I conclude that the reasons for this should be analyzed in the complex postcolonial context, which includes the acting out of collective trauma. In my analysis, I focus on the link between trauma and repressed aggression, violence, and resentment. I also show how Russian deadpan photography has opposed Putin’s regime and developed a pioneer methodology for reflecting on the post-Soviet condition. The American model was used to bring together a diversity of viewpoints, which reveals more complex and integrated ways of dealing with collective affect.https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/19138boredomdeadpan photographyNew TopographicsNovyy peyzazh
spellingShingle Victoria Musvik
“Boring Photography”: American New Topographics, Socialist Boredom, and Post-Soviet Deadpan Photography
European Journal of American Studies
boredom
deadpan photography
New Topographics
Novyy peyzazh
title “Boring Photography”: American New Topographics, Socialist Boredom, and Post-Soviet Deadpan Photography
title_full “Boring Photography”: American New Topographics, Socialist Boredom, and Post-Soviet Deadpan Photography
title_fullStr “Boring Photography”: American New Topographics, Socialist Boredom, and Post-Soviet Deadpan Photography
title_full_unstemmed “Boring Photography”: American New Topographics, Socialist Boredom, and Post-Soviet Deadpan Photography
title_short “Boring Photography”: American New Topographics, Socialist Boredom, and Post-Soviet Deadpan Photography
title_sort boring photography american new topographics socialist boredom and post soviet deadpan photography
topic boredom
deadpan photography
New Topographics
Novyy peyzazh
url https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/19138
work_keys_str_mv AT victoriamusvik boringphotographyamericannewtopographicssocialistboredomandpostsovietdeadpanphotography