Assembling for a Demonstration, 1928

A subject with a strong social-political content rendered in a dynamic composition, this photo-image by Rodchenko well expresses the multiple constituents of artist's eye, sharp intellect and focused energy that situated him as the defining photographer of Russia's post-revolutionary avant-garde.

In a Russian street, figures gather for a demonstration. They are seen from above, from a vertiginous angle, on the diagonal, and become elements in a spontaneously, yet most effectively envisioned structure. The photographer's perspective is not that of reportage; he is, rather, representing his subject as a concept as opposed to a purely factual document. Rodchenko has made a Constructivist picture that assumes a broader symbolic dimension and is also, incidentally, filled with enigmatic detail. The dark shapes that splash the street -- shadows and other random forms -- call to mind the ambiguous configurations of another, widely-published image from around this time -- Moholy-Nagy's 1929 view looking down on the Pont Transbordeur in Marseille.

The present study exemplifies Rodchenko's authority in defining a heroic new language of photographic picture-making.

Another print of this image is in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York.