Sergei Tret’iakov – The Writer as Photographer

Sergei Mikhailovich Tret’iakov was among the first Russian avant-garde creative figures to become active in photography. This article identifies factors that may have stimulated his move into photo-journalism. These include the emergence of an illustrated press; Tret’iakov’s association with the journal LEF and colleagues like Osip Brik; the theoretical position of Aleksei Gan’s magazine Kino-Fot; Lenin’s ‘Directive on Cinema Affairs’; the prominence given to photography following Lenin’s death in 1924; Tret’iakov’s connection with film through Sergei Eisenstein, film stills and his work for Proletcult (Proletkul’t); and his travel to China in 1924–1925. Several photographs and layouts are examined in detail.