It's a veritable who's who of a bygone era. Soviet movie stars such as Alisa Freindlikh, Yury Nikulin and Lyudmila Gurchenko line the walls of Pobeda Gallery in Winzavod, all of them captured on covers of Sovietsky Ekran, or Soviet Screen, a magazine founded in 1925 that achieved a circulation in the millions during the final decades of Soviet rule.
In its heyday, Sovietsky Ekran gave eager readers a semi-monthly dose of glamour and celebrity glitz. More than just a film digest, it was a fashion, culture and beauty magazine all in one.
"Sovietsky Ekran was really the Soviet Union's only fashion magazine. The covers boast a remarkable attention to detail that set it apart from other Soviet magazines and made it very stylish and alluring," Nina Gomiashvili, one of the gallery's owners, said at Wednesday's opening.
"In fact, even in the West, it had no counterpart in those days," she added. "You could call it the Soviet Vanity Fair of 30 years ago." In addition to quenching Brezhnev-era thirst for movie star glitter, the magazine also siphoned in news of Western films and Hollywood stars, a rarity in the staid Soviet media.
The idea for a cover-photo retrospective arose haphazardly. "I was rummaging through my family's archive and I found these magazine covers that are simply to die for, and they had been totally forgotten. I knew this wasn't fair, so we decided to revive the whole story of forgotten Soviet glamour," said Gomiashvili, an actress-turned-photojournalist who spent her college years in New York.
For all the allure of the cover models, however, the true stars of the exhibition are the three bogatyrs of the Soviet glossy: photographers Valery Plotnikov, Igor Gnevashev, and Mikola Gnisyuk. The exhibition is organized by photographer and displays a medley of covers by each.
The three shot most of the magazine's covers from the late 1960s to the end of its run in 1990, and each brought his own touch to the medium. The Leningrad-based Plotnikov packs a liveliness and energy in his covers, seen in the famous shots of Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava that helped cement his reputation as one of Russia's foremost portrait photographers. Gnisyuk, who died in February, reached global stature. He was not only invited to the Academy Awards in the 1980s, but also snapped portraits of big-name stars such as Robert De Niro, Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.
Shooting the stars of Soviet cinema required an informal approach to photography rarely found -- or welcomed -- in other publications. "I tried to expose the depth and personality of actors divorced from their on-screen personas," Gnevashev said at the opening. "If I had continued working for Ogonyok or Komsomolskaya Pravda, I would have starved. All the photos I brought from my assignments were being rejected. So I shot for Sovietsky Ekran. I understood what they needed."
Indeed, most of the covers on display celebrate the actors as people distinct from their screen roles. Gnevashev catches perennial clowns Nikulin, Yevgeny Morgunov and Georgy Vitsin as they frown, clad morosely in suits more reminiscent of "The Godfather" than "The Adventures of Shurik." Plotnikov similarly presents Mikhail Boyarsky, star of the 1978 hit "D'Artagnan and The Three Musketeers," sporting a light shirt over a turtleneck against the riggings of a ship.
Not all the cover faces belong solely to the now-distant era of Soviet cinema. Among the portraits, viewers may recognize a youthful Alla Pugachyova and Nikita Mikhalkov. A few stars even showed up for the exhibition's opening: Igor Starygin, who played Aramis in "Three Musketeers," joined television host Svetlana Bondarchuk and actress Natalya Arinbasarova, who got to see Plotnikov's cover of her on a bed of hay some 40 years ago.
"Soviet Screen" (Sovietsky Ekran) runs to Aug. 25 at Pobeda Gallery in Winzavod, located at 1 4th Syromyatnichesky Pereulok, Bldg. 6. Metro Kurskaya. Tel. 917-4646.
In its heyday, Sovietsky Ekran gave eager readers a semi-monthly dose of glamour and celebrity glitz. More than just a film digest, it was a fashion, culture and beauty magazine all in one.
"Sovietsky Ekran was really the Soviet Union's only fashion magazine. The covers boast a remarkable attention to detail that set it apart from other Soviet magazines and made it very stylish and alluring," Nina Gomiashvili, one of the gallery's owners, said at Wednesday's opening.
"In fact, even in the West, it had no counterpart in those days," she added. "You could call it the Soviet Vanity Fair of 30 years ago." In addition to quenching Brezhnev-era thirst for movie star glitter, the magazine also siphoned in news of Western films and Hollywood stars, a rarity in the staid Soviet media.
The idea for a cover-photo retrospective arose haphazardly. "I was rummaging through my family's archive and I found these magazine covers that are simply to die for, and they had been totally forgotten. I knew this wasn't fair, so we decided to revive the whole story of forgotten Soviet glamour," said Gomiashvili, an actress-turned-photojournalist who spent her college years in New York.
For all the allure of the cover models, however, the true stars of the exhibition are the three bogatyrs of the Soviet glossy: photographers Valery Plotnikov, Igor Gnevashev, and Mikola Gnisyuk. The exhibition is organized by photographer and displays a medley of covers by each.
The three shot most of the magazine's covers from the late 1960s to the end of its run in 1990, and each brought his own touch to the medium. The Leningrad-based Plotnikov packs a liveliness and energy in his covers, seen in the famous shots of Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava that helped cement his reputation as one of Russia's foremost portrait photographers. Gnisyuk, who died in February, reached global stature. He was not only invited to the Academy Awards in the 1980s, but also snapped portraits of big-name stars such as Robert De Niro, Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.
Shooting the stars of Soviet cinema required an informal approach to photography rarely found -- or welcomed -- in other publications. "I tried to expose the depth and personality of actors divorced from their on-screen personas," Gnevashev said at the opening. "If I had continued working for Ogonyok or Komsomolskaya Pravda, I would have starved. All the photos I brought from my assignments were being rejected. So I shot for Sovietsky Ekran. I understood what they needed."
Indeed, most of the covers on display celebrate the actors as people distinct from their screen roles. Gnevashev catches perennial clowns Nikulin, Yevgeny Morgunov and Georgy Vitsin as they frown, clad morosely in suits more reminiscent of "The Godfather" than "The Adventures of Shurik." Plotnikov similarly presents Mikhail Boyarsky, star of the 1978 hit "D'Artagnan and The Three Musketeers," sporting a light shirt over a turtleneck against the riggings of a ship.
Not all the cover faces belong solely to the now-distant era of Soviet cinema. Among the portraits, viewers may recognize a youthful Alla Pugachyova and Nikita Mikhalkov. A few stars even showed up for the exhibition's opening: Igor Starygin, who played Aramis in "Three Musketeers," joined television host Svetlana Bondarchuk and actress Natalya Arinbasarova, who got to see Plotnikov's cover of her on a bed of hay some 40 years ago.
"Soviet Screen" (Sovietsky Ekran) runs to Aug. 25 at Pobeda Gallery in Winzavod, located at 1 4th Syromyatnichesky Pereulok, Bldg. 6. Metro Kurskaya. Tel. 917-4646.