Sovetskoe Foto

The digitized version of Sovetskoe Foto, the main and most popular journal about photography published in the Soviet Union from 1926 till 1997, is now available online on the website of The Internet Archive project.

The journal had a monthly circulation of a quarter of a million and addressed an audience of professional and amateur photographers and cine photographers. Apart from the works of Soviet and international photo artists, the publication featured articles on the theoretical and practical foundations of photography, history of photography, and new technologies. It is also noteworthy that the journal served as a platform for regular photography contests dedicated to a variety of topics, which fostered the development of photography and interest thereof.

Sovetskoe Foto was no exception to the rest of the press freely circulated in the Soviet Union and thus was subject to censorship. It was a voice and a means of constructing the visual language and images used by professional photo journalists and amateur photographers. Through Sovetskoe Foto, you can track down the development, policy, and transformation of photographic canons in the Soviet Union, which makes the journal a very interesting object for researchers of visual studies, historians, culture experts, and art historians.

You can view the digital archive of Sovetskoe Foto on the website of The Internet Archive project at the following link.