Usurped reality. The processes and collisions of the sovietization of Lithuanian photography

Straipsnyje nagrinėjami pototalitarinio režimo metais fotografijos srityje vykę kūrybiniai procesai, kurie subrandino dvi viena kitai oponuojančias meno sroves. Septintojo dešimtmečio pabaigoje iškilusi lietuvių fotografijos mokykla suformavo dokumentiškumu pagrįstą fotografijos meno sampratą, o naujosios kartos 9-ojo dešimtmecio pradžios darbuose pasireiškė alternatyvi raiška, paneigianti įtvirtintos tradicijos vertybes. Istorinėje analizėje sovietinė fotografija interpretuojama kaip altrealybė, daug dėmesio skiriant stilistinės leksikos konstravimo principams ir socialinių komunikacijos formų - institucijos su kūrybiniu individu santykių kultūros sovietizavimo aplinkybėmis - nustatymui.The article discusses the creative processes that took place during the years after the totalitarian regime in the field of photography. Those creative processes were responsible for the development of two artistic tendencies that were in opposition to each other. The Lithuanian school of photography that emerged in late 1960s formulated a conception of photography that was based on the documentary approach. In the meantime, the works of the new generation that debuted in early 1980s manifested an alternative expression that abandoned the values of the established tradition. This historical analysis focuses on how the principles of a stylistic vocabulary were constructed during the period and establishes the relationship that existed between the institution and the creative individual when culture underwent Sovietization. One of the most important objectives of the Sovietization of photography was related to the creation of a new ideological reality. With the aim of presenting the precise characteristics of this reality, the paper introduces a new term - alt-reality. This term not only points to the nature of the phenomenon (as, for example, hyper-) or to its scale (as, for example, total-), but also provides grounds for its ideological goal to represent an idealized Soviet reality, i.e. to visualize it in qualitative categories. Documentary photographers who developed the traditions of the school usurped the concept in terms of the basic principles of the photographic art. The first chapter discusses the construction of a Soviet alt-reality in photography during the Thaw period, when the emerging diachronic function of photography raised the modern aesthetics of photography to a position equivalent to social realism. The second chapter analyses the contradictions that were manifest from early 1980s between the traditional and alternative expression. The new generation of artists broke away from the canon of documentary refiection, maintaining that photography itself was a new artistic reality. Thus, the cornerstone of contention became not only the different perceptions of reality that were available in photography, or through photography, but also the definition of the limits of photography as an artistic object. Still, the pragmatic policy of public relations that was observed by the Society of Lithuanian Art Photographers was orientated towards the integrity of the medium in Soviet culture. Such a situation demonstrates that the alt-reality that was created during the Soviet period according to the conception of the traditional school of photography remained quite united in the public space; while the split took place on the level of the professional community's discourse and ideas. In the case of the school, photography was consolidated as a modern, yet "demonstrative" art, whereas the creators of alternative expression, who had a critical approach towards the traditional representation of reality, implanted the practices of devisualization. They were the first to inspire the use of postmodern tendencies in Lithuanian art photography under the circumstances of a weakened, although still ideological, restricted culture