Sergei Alexandrovich Lobovikov

Sergei Alexandrovich Lobowikow ( Russian Сергей Александрович Лобовиков * 19th June 1870 in Belaya, Vyatka Governorate , Russian Empire ; † 27. November 1941 in Leningrad ) was a Russian photographer and precious printer .

Life

Lobowikow comes from the fertile spiritual milieu of the Russian province, his father was a deacon in the village church of Belaya. With the death of both parents in 1884, he was orphaned at an early age and in 1885 began a five-year photographic training with PG Tichonow, in whose household in Vjatka - where he would spend a large part of his life - he also lived.

Apart from this photographic apprenticeship, Lobowikow never received any further photo-artistic training, but he maintained friendships and contacts with artists who influenced him throughout his life; like AO Karelin, who advises him not to pursue further training so that his independent style would be preserved. For many years Lobowikow has been active in various associations: on the one hand, he submits his own works to photographic award ceremonies, on the other hand, he worked on the organization of exhibitions in Vjatka from 1901 and first became chairman of the Photographic Society of Vjatka and later of the 1909 founded " Vjatka Art Circle ". In the founding year, Lobowikow and the Art Circle created the basis for an art museum, from which the Kirov District Museum will later emerge, which will have special significance for the preservation and rediscovery of Lobowikow's photographic work. Due to the large workload in addition to his professional activity, Lobowikow resigned from his association offices in 1912.

On Karelin's advice, the ambitious Sergej Lobowikow opened his first studio in 1894, and from 1904 - a year after he had married Elizaveta Jakimowa, a village teacher - in his own house, which he had lavishly converted, to create a studio of his own Claims was met. Lobowikow runs this studio, in addition to his apparently only episodic artistic activity, continuously until 1932. In that year he donated the house and laboratory to the Pedagogical University, where he taught photography from 1920. This continues to operate the laboratory for some time and then closes it and converts the house into living space. In 1934 Lobowikow moved to Leningrad, where he died in 1941 as a result of a German bomb attack.

photography

Timofej Lobowikow cites a note from his father Sergei, in which he said of himself: “I am a farmer photographer. My subject is the farmer, and his existence interests me from every angle. ”Melancholy images of rural life and portraits of the rural population actually make up a large part of his artistic work. In addition, he made countless cityscapes and portraits as a professional photographer. At the end of his professional career he is said to have thrown 60,000 glass photo plates, which he considered artistically worthless, out of the window of his studio - which could also be read as a symbolic liberation from banal professional practice.

For his personal artistic work, Lobowikow preferred to use rubber or bromine oil pressure ; especially in the early phase also the platinum print . As a stylistic device, he prefers to use enlarged sections and blurring. In contrast to his work photography - the whereabouts of which are often little known - his artistic work has been almost completely preserved, as Lobowikow never parted with his fine prints, either through exchange or sale. After the destruction of the Leningrad apartment of the Lobovikovs, in which Sergei was killed, his son Timofej came to Leningrad in 1943 and was able to save most of his father's pictures. He kept them and then handed them over to the Kirov District Museum, where they had to wait a long time to be rediscovered and were only exhibited sporadically.

Sergej Lobowikow only had one solo exhibition of his works: organized by the Russian Photographic Society in Moscow in 1927 on the occasion of his 40th anniversary in his career. However, he participates in many group exhibitions, where he has received several awards. The first exhibition of his work after 1927 took place in 1995 in the Documenta-Halle Kassel .

further reading

• Hans Puttnies (Ed.): Sergej Lobovikov. A Russian master of fine art photography. Prestel, Munich and New York 1995.
• Karlheinz W. Kopanski, Claudia Gabriele Philipp (ed.): Masterpieces of Russian and German art photography around 1900. Sergej Lobovikov and the Hofmeister brothers. Prestel, Munich and New York 1999, ISBN 3-7913-2234-6 .

Web links

• wintershall.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} masterpieces of Russian and German art photography around 1900. In: Karlheinz W. Kopanski, Claudia Gabriele Philipp (eds.): Sergej Lobovikov and the Hofmeister brothers. Prestel, Munich / New York 1999, ISBN 3-7913-2234-6 , p. 216.
2. ↑ Nina Martynova: Lobovikov and his time. In: Hans Puttnies (ed.): Sergej Lobovikov. A Russian master of fine art photography. Prestel, Munich and New York 1995, p. 162.
3. ↑ Nina Martynova: Lobovikov and his time. In: Hans Puttnies (ed.): Sergej Lobovikov. A Russian master of fine art photography. Prestel, Munich and New York 1995, p. 165.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Hans Puttnies: The photo artist. In: Hans Puttnies (ed.): Sergej Lobovikov. A Russian master of fine art photography. Prestel, Munich and New York 1995, p. 17.
5. ↑ Nina Martynova: Lobovikov and the Vyatka Art Circle. In: Hans Puttnies (ed.): In: Sergej Lobovikov. A Russian master of fine art photography. Prestel, Munich and New York 1995, pp. 207-215.
6. ↑ Timofej Lobovikov The world of the father. In: Hans Puttnies (ed.): Sergej Lobovikov. A Russian master of fine art photography. Prestel, Munich and New York 1995, p. 52.
7. ↑ Nina Martynova: Lobowikow and his time. In: Hans Puttnies (ed.): Sergej Lobovikov. A Russian master of fine art photography. Prestel, Munich and New York 1995, p. 173.
8. ↑ Timofej Lobovikov: The world of the father. In: Hans Puttnies (ed.): Sergej Lobovikov. A Russian master of fine art photography. Prestel, Munich and New York 1995, p. 60.
9. ↑ Hans Puttnies City life. In: Hans Puttnies (ed.): Sergej Lobovikov. A Russian master of fine art photography. Prestel, Munich and New York 1995, p. 176.
10. ↑ Hans Puttnies The Country Life. In: Hans Puttnies (ed.): Sergej Lobovikov. A Russian master of fine art photography. Prestel, Munich and New York 1995, p. 157.