Vsevolod Tarasevich / Time Formula

As part of the programmes 'Classics of Russian Photography' and 'The History of Russia in Photographs'

Curator: Olga Annanurova

Vsevolod Tarasevich. Time Formula

Vsevolod Tarasevich is a classic of Russian photography. In 1939 he volunteered to serve in the Soviet-Finnish War. From 1941 to 1945 he was a war correspondent. After 1945 Vsevolod Tarasevich worked at APN, publishing his photographs in the magazines Sovyetsky Soyuz, Ogonyok, Rabotnitsa and Soviet Life. The latter featured Vsevolod Tarasevich’s photo reportages shot in the 1960s to 1970s at Moscow State University, the Institute of High Energy Physics at Protvino, the RAS Institute of Biological Physics at Pushchino, and other scientific centres established at that time.

The late 50s to mid-70s marked the period of the ’physicists-lyricists’, with propaganda exalting science in general, the exact sciences in particular. The focus on science and education and the resources spent on this brought results. Soviet physicists were awarded the Nobel prize: Pavel Cherenkov, Igor Tamm and Ilya Frank in 1958, Lev Landau in 1962, Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov in 1964, Pyotr Kapitsa in 1978. Terms such as ‘the peaceful atom’, ‘cybernetics’, ‘genetics’ and ‘space research’ were splashed across newspaper headlines. Scientists, and first of all physicists, became the heroes of their time.

The image of the ’science cities’ of that period: Novosibirsk Akademgorodok, the Institute of High Energy Physics at Protvino, the RAS Institute of Biological Physics at Pushchino and the RAS scientific centre at Chernogolovka, and the romantic atmosphere that prevailed there were conveyed best of all in the photo reportages of Vsevolod Tarasevich.

The experience of an epoch in which knowledge and achievement were more important than material rewards has not lost its appeal today.

Olga Sviblova

Biography

Vsevolod Sergeyevich Tarasevich
(Samarkand, 1919 — Moscow, 1998)

1930s — Begins taking photographs while still at school.

1937 — Student at the Leningrad Electro-Technical Institute; first publication of his photos in the Smena and Leningradskaya Pravda newspapers.

1939 — Leaves the institute to volunteer in the war against Finland.

1940 — Becomes a press photographer for the LenTASS picture chronicle.

1941-1945 — Photojournalist for the North-West Political Administration, then for the Leningrad fronts.

Late 1940s-1950s — Works for the Vecherniye Leningrad newspaper, then for the magazines Sovyetsky Soyuz, Sovyetskaya Zhenshchina, Ogonyok, etc. after moving to Moscow.

1950s — Begins shooting with colour film.

1961 — Becomes press photographer for the Novosti Press Agency (APN); his images appear primarily in the magazine Soviet Life.

1970s — Dean of the photojournalism faculty at the Institute of Journalism, Moscow Union of Journalists.

Late 1970s-1980s — Publishes the photo albums: ‘My — Fiziki’ (‘We Are Physicians’), Moscow, Planeta publishers, 1976; ‘Svyet Nureka’ (‘The Glitterati of Nurek’), Moscow, Planeta publishers, 1980; ‘Morye, Lyudi, Zhizn’ (‘Sea, People, Life’), Moscow, Planeta publishers, 1987.

1990-1998 — Correspondent for the Novosti Information Agency (IAN), successor of APN; continues to work for the organisation after it becomes the Novosti Russian Information Agency.