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Mikhail Suslov was against the flying ..experience. Sports photojournalism in America. Part II. 50-80s.

Sports photography was a kind of outlet for photographers in Soviet times: interference for political or ideological reasons was much rarer here than in other genres, which, by the way, was often the reason for choosing sports as a subject for photo correspondents. But there were stories here, too. For example, this shot of L. The picture of Borodulin from the Rome 1960 Olympics, published on the cover of Ogonyok magazine, was severely criticized by Soviet ideologist Mikhail Suslov for its formalism and was given the concise title of “flying ass” by him.

We thank the RIA Novosti group for the photos they provided for publication.

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1-3. Igor Utkin. 1st place in the “Sports” WPP category. 1968

Sports are becoming an important element of the country’s image

By the middle of the 20th century, the possibilities of photographic technology were so limited that most of the energy and attention of photographers was focused on getting a quality, sharp or scene-setting shot. Some managed to catch an expressive moment of movement or caught an unforeseen, curious situation – it was considered a big success, good luck and simply an indicator of high professionalism. The main thing was just to catch the right moment or athlete – that’s what the photographers were focused on, the artistic value of the shot was in the background.

The 1952 Helsinki Olympics was the first Olympics in which Soviet athletes participated. Since that time sport has been an important aspect of the country’s image. Interest in it increased demand for sports photography, improved print quality, the appearance of color in monthly publications the only daily newspaper “Soviet Sport” remained black and white for a very long time – in a word, increased demands on the quality of photography, and at the same time gave new opportunities for photographers.

Sports photographers began to travel to major international competitions together with athletes. Of course, there were only few of them, and they were made out as participants of the tour, for which they had to go through many authorities and checks, to get special permissions. But that was a huge privilege specifically for sports photographers. In fact, they were the only ones who could communicate and work closely with foreign colleagues at that time.

Transmission of photos from the scene is an extraordinary event. For this, even not always praised. For example, Boris Svetlanov, a photographer of Soviet Sport, had such a conversation when he decided to promptly pass on a photo of Leningrad skier Lyubov Kozyreva’s first Olympic victory in 1956:

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4. Dmitry Donskoy. David Rigert, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. 1975

– How it was? – sternly asked the minister.

– When the 10-kilometer race was over and Kozyreva was the champion, I shot all the film and went to the Associated Press, they had a big tent set up in the snow.

– One went?

– No, with a bottle of Stolichnaya, of course.

– You have solved the questions, but we have to pay the currency..

– I forwarded photos of our first White Olympics champion to AP! That’s the story, Nikolai Nikolaevich!

– Thank you for the history. We’ll pay you the money, but you’ll get a reprimand in the editorial office – just in case.

It was the 1950s that defined the “profile” of a sports photographer: knowledge of all the subtleties of sports and an understanding of the logic of athletes’ behavior gives a greater advantage over equally poor technical capabilities. Amateur or even professional sports photographers often pass on to sports photographers. For example, the legendary Soviet goalkeeper Alexei Khomich became a sports photographer after his sports career ended. His knowledge of soccer as well as his good acquaintances allowed him to get preferential treatment when taking pictures. However, because he was too indifferent to sports, it didn’t always help him get a good shot.

“
 Invariably taking his place behind the goal, Khomich, according to recollections of Filatov, never brought a picture to the editorial office that captured a goal-scoring moment. “Alexey Petrovich, you were standing near the goal where they scored two goals. Where are those pictures??” Khomich: “How was it possible to miss such balls? I’m shouting at him, the dude!!!”

But most importantly, it was from the ’50s that important improvements in photography technique began. The emergence and proliferation of SLR cameras was a key moment.

And with SLRs came different lenses including long focal lengths which opened up new horizons: first of all, a photographer could now take pictures not only of things far away enough, but even of things which were not always visible to the naked eye. A telephoto lens changes space, making it flatter, and that gives new pictorial possibilities in general. It became easier to focus and rewind the film, which made it possible to take more pictures in a single burst.

For example, this series which won the WPP in 1968 1st place in the Sports category was made by a young APN lab assistant, Igor Utkin, during a match in New York. Naturally, after winning the prestigious contest he was immediately relegated to the category of “photojournalists” and in the future received two more WPP awards just for sports photography, which became his main subject. What is surprising here is not so much the expressiveness and artistry of the photographs, but that the photographer managed to sharply shoot three consecutive frames of a very brief moment. By the way, such “storyboards” of athletes’ movements have become very popular in sports photo thanks to the slow motion replay during TV broadcasts of important performances.

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5. Lev Borodulin. Cut loose.

Publication in Ogonyok magazine 1960

Give me a Nikon, and I’ll turn the world upside down!

The Nikon F SLR camera 1959 was a landmark in its own right, with many innovations of the time. And often this camera was ascribed almost magical properties. “Give me a Nikon and I’ll turn the world upside down!”At that time, Soviet journalism students, who often had only dreamt about Nikons, used to say..

Of course, many of the controls were still manual, and a high level of technical expertise was required of the photographer. And photographers were given a maximum number of new descriptive possibilities, and were actively learning how to use them.

A whole stage in the development of sports and not only photography is associated with the work of Lev Borodulin. An artist by first education, he has consistently defended in his works the importance of photography as a special kind of art. Each of his pictures is, first of all, a precise work of art.

Interestingly, in the West, at the same time the process of recognition of photography as a special kind of art was also taking place. In 1971, for example, there is an auction at Sotheby’s in London, which is the first time photographs have been exhibited.

In his creative search Borodulin borrowed many of the techniques from photographers of the older generation, expanding them with new approaches and using innovative techniques. He was one of the first to use the circular “fiche” to create unusual, memorable compositions.

Sharp angles and hard diagonal compositions have been known since the 20s and 30s, it added new dynamics, conciseness and imagery. And by using contrasting printing techniques, he achieved a special graphic quality in his photos.

Shooting with ghosting was also reborn at that time, when it was possible to show the special beauty of blurred motion on color stills. For example, Dmitry Donskoy was one of the first to use the new features of lenses with variable focal length: when shooting at relatively long shutter speeds, the zoom ring is turned smoothly, and the image zooming effect appears.

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6. Sergei Gouneev. Running with obstacles.

3rd prize in the Sports category at WPP. 1980

New Features: Remote Control

The remote control allowed me to take photos from points that were previously inaccessible to the photographer. For example, to take a picture of the Olympics in New York Sergey Guneev had to put his camera a Nikon F2, by the way practically into a puddle. It is interesting that the picture was conceived and even rehearsed a year before the Olympics – during the 7th Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in 1979, where Gouneev and his older colleague Dmitry Donskoy were the first to try to make a similar picture.

In general, at that time photographers often “thought up” photos long before they took them. This technique was not new Rodchenko said that he used to think up the composition of some of his shots beforehand. But for a long time this approach became one of the main ones in sports photography: lack of technique at high speed made it impossible for the photographer to quickly react to what was happening.

In that sense, WPP photographers were especially “lucky”: the agency received major foreign magazines by subscription, and if a photographer managed to get permission for access to special magazines it was possible to spy on ideas from Western colleagues.

Another shot by Sergey Guneev was made just like that: the author thought up beforehand that he would try to contrast the stillness of the tennis tables with the smeared sharp movements of the athletes.

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7. Sergey Guneev. European Table Tennis Championships.

1st place in Sports category of WPP. 1985

Staging as a way to get a vivid image

Many photos of that time are staged. That was not at odds with the way photojournalism was perceived at the time. Often the photographer just wasn’t technically able to get the shot he wanted in time, and then it was ok to ask the athlete to repeat a similar situation.

For example, a photograph by the sports photographer Igor Utkin that won third place at the WPP competition in 1983 was born this way: the photographer first saw the right moment, but didn’t have time to shoot. So I asked the goalie to repeat his jump several times – and the goalie “jumped” on 8 films.

Photographer Anatoly Bochinin, who shot sports for Ogonyok, tells about his work at the time: “A photo correspondent, trite as it may sound, must think how to expose the subject. For example, I had to take a picture of Yuri Vlasov, Olympic champion in Rome and the strongest man on the planet. He thought for a long time and found a way out. While Yura was training in a CSKA gym, I managed to run into a neighboring school and persuaded them to lend me the two biggest globes. When Vlasov lifted them into his arms, it was clear: he was the symbol of the strongest man on earth.”.

Often staging was resorted to because it was not always possible to get a photo of a particular event, or it was not expressive enough, and then it was necessary to create a bright visual image of an athlete. Often in such cases, the photographer tried to shoot the hero in an informal setting: either at a training session, or with his family, or in any other, non-standard situation.

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8. Dmitry Donskoy.

Hockey player Vladislav Tretyak with his wife and children. 1975

Unfortunately, it was often done in the same pattern, in a fairly limited time to shoot. And if you look at the pictures of that time, the uniformity of subjects becomes apparent: with the family, with medals, with sports equipment, during training
 It was excusable that the shots depict well-known idols in a situation in which the audience is not used to see them, or at training sessions showing the underside of sports everyday life.

But there were exceptions, of course. For example, Vladimir Vyatkin’s “Birdgirls” series about synchronized female athletes. Finished after the described period and awarded by WPP in 2003, it has been filmed for ten years and tells the story of how the girls go from the first gymnastics classes to the Olympic victories.

Thus, by the end of the 1980s, sports photographers could take narratively important shots of key events. While they were far from always beautiful, that’s why expressive and imaginative photos were often taken not at important events but during trainings, rehearsals, staging method. Interesting series about sports heroes were shot for several years, “sketches” in an informal atmosphere were made hastily and by a template.

In essence, a sports photographer’s work consisted as much of a virtuoso mastery of technique as of an excellent knowledge of the specifics of sports events, and it also depended a great deal on imagination and imaginative thinking. Many photographs of that time were created in the minds of photographers before the shutter button on the camera was even pressed. In fact, sports photography of the 50s-80s at its best displayed, first of all, the photographer’s imagination and creativity and, to a lesser degree, the reality of what really happened on the courts and in the stadiums.

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9. Igor Utkin. Olga Bicherova, a Grade 8 student at a New York school. The future all-around world champion in artistic gymnastics. 1981

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10,11. Vladimir Vyatkin. From the series “Birdgirls”.

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Comments: 1
  1. Aubrey Marshall

    Interesting topic! I’d love to know more about Mikhail Suslov’s opinions on the flying experience. Why was he against it and how did it relate to sports photojournalism in America during the 50-80s?

    Reply
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