Boris Kudoyarov

Boris Pavlovich Kudoyarov (1898-1973) was a prominent master of photo-reportage and one of the best known Russian photographers. In 1925 he started as a reporter for Physical Culture and Sport magazine. Later he worked for Russphoto, Unionphoto and Soyuzphoto agencies and was commissioned to photograph construction sites, collective farms and outstanding workers. In 1933 he became reporter for Izvestia and Komsomolskaya Pravda newspapers.

Kudoyarov was a member of the October group (Association of New Artistic Work, October, Moscow, active from 1928 to 1932), worked with Alexander Rodchenko, Boris Ignatovich, Eleazar Langman. The October group had a major impact on photographic art, forming its language, compositional forms, ways of representation of reality. Boris Kudoyarov had a brilliant knowledge of different approaches to photographic transformation of reality, but he rarely used them. The only methods that came to define his work and influenced his style were the ones that he considered efficient mediums of expression capable of revealing the essence of his subject.