Can anyone recommend a good book on classic Soviet or Russian photography?

[mr_phillip]

Ok, so it's last-minute Christmas shopping time. A friend of my other half has a love of all things Russian, and she really loves the classic Soviet photography of Alexander Rodchenko.

I know she already has a book of Rodchenko's work, but wondered if anyone could recommend a good companion book for a Christmas gift. I've had a look in the local bookshops but can't find anything, and buying from Amazon would be a bit of a pig in a poke without any reliable recommendations.

Cheers.

 

[Jocko]

You've left it rather late Comrade!

Unfortunately some of the best western books on Soviet photography tended toappear in the 80s and are long out of print. Not that this should matter to an enthusiast. Recommended in print books include -
Propaganda: Photographs from Soviet Archives by Mark Holborn
The Soviet Photograph, 1924-37 by Margarita Tupitsyn
Witness to History: Photographs of Yevgeny Khaldei by Yevgeny Khaldei

Good OOP books available used from Abe Books (often much cheaper than Amazon) are
Soviet Photography 1917-1940: The New Photojournalism by Sergei Morozov and Valerie Lloyd
Pioneers of Soviet photography by Grigory Shudakov
Soviet Photography of the 1920s and 1930s. Sowjestische Fotografie Der 20er Und 30er Jahre
by Olga Lavrentiev, Alexander Sviblova
Another Russia: Through the Eyes of the New Soviet Photographers by Daniela Mrazkova and Vladimir Remes (a particular favourite of mine).
Early Soviet Photographers by Mrazkova & Remes

Cheers, Ian

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii 'Photographs for the Tsar' is pretty much a classic.

 

[lushd]

A favourite of mine:

Faces of a nation, Dmitri Baltermants

Or

A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union, Rick Smolan

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

http://www.amazon.com/Photo-Manifesto-Contemporary-Photography-USSR/dp/1556701993 This book, Photo Manifesto: Contemporary Photography in the Soviet Union, is really interesting, a lot of pictures that don't follow the socialist-realism doctrine that most soviet photography after Stalin did. Most of the photos in the book are from the mid to late 1980's. I bought mine at a clearance book sale years ago for about $6!