Alexander Lapin: biography and photo

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Lapin Alexander Iosifovich is a man who made a huge contribution to the development of the Moscow school of photography. His exhibitions were held not only at home, but also in Paris, Oxford, Washington. In love with art, he did his best to popularize it. Lapin has several books on photography and the opening of his own school.

Childhood

In the last year of the war, one of the most famous Russian photographers Lapin Alexander was born. Moscow became his home, here he was destined to spend his whole life. The boy grew up without a father. In one room of the communal apartment he lived with his mother and grandmother, in the other - a family of seven workers. The head of the neighboring family was fond of hunting and fishing, but, in addition, he sometimes curtained the window with a blanket and worked some kind of magic in complete darkness. This made an indelible impression on little Alexander and determined his entire biography.

In 1959, the exposition "The Human Family" was brought to Sokolniki. Almost 300 photographers from different countries presented their work. There were shots about joy and sadness, peace and war, all those events that fill people's lives and from which, like in a kaleidoscope, a mosaic of life is formed. Fourteen-year-old Sasha Lapin was shocked by the exhibition. Photography has come as close to the person as no other art has.

The boy grew up sickly, often missed school. He preferred mathematics and physics to other subjects, and entering the Physico-Technical Institute after graduation looked like a completely logical and deliberate step. However, Alexander Lapin never finished it. In 1969, he burned bridges and took documents to devote himself entirely to photography.

Career start

Like many world famous photographers, Alexander Lapin did not receive any special education. In his autobiography, among his teachers, he named such names as Y. Smith, A. Cartier-Bresson, A. Kertesh. At the beginning of his creative path, the photographer collaborated with a variety of organizations: trade enterprises, factories, even took pictures for one "Teacher's House". Lapin tried himself in different genres: landscape, still life, nude. Eventually, he started taking portraits of ordinary people on the streets of the city.

The photographer took part in group exhibitions in the famous basement on Malaya Gruzinskaya, 28. In 1985, his first solo exhibition was held here, and two years later his work went abroad for the first time, to the UK.

Flourishing creativity

It cannot be said that in the Soviet Union the art of genre photography enjoyed universal recognition and love. Many photographers for power were semi-marginal elements. Yes, and they were not called photographers, because these people couldwork as watchmen, be on duty in the boiler room or be ordinary parasites. At the same time, they were seriously engaged in photography and painted in their pictures not the front side of the Soviet Union, but the ordinary life of ordinary people, which was often far from glossy. In 1986, having arrived in Moscow, the Finnish delegation met these young photographers and dubbed the phenomenon the “New Wave”. In 1988, their work will be included in the book "Seers of the Other", published in Helsinki.

Since 1985, Lapin began to actively exhibit his works, and since 1979 he has been teaching. First, he reads a photography course at the Correspondence University of Art, then he runs a studio at the House of Culture of Moscow State University. Alexander Lapin later recalled these two years with great warmth. The photographer recalled that many of his students went public and later began working in major metropolitan publications, some of them gained great fame.

In the recreation center of Moscow State University they arranged something like exhibitions. These were not full-fledged exhibitions, since permissions for exhibitions had to be obtained from the censors, and this was not easy to do. Pictures were exhibited for only one evening, this was not prohibited by law. Only two full-fledged exhibitions were arranged here by Lapin and his students.

The First Moscow Youth Exhibition was held with posters and invitation cards. Then they tried to arrange an exhibition of Igor Mukhin. The photographer who would later shoot Tsoi and Zemfira took a series of shots of hippies and punks. Censorship somehow managed to get through, but the models captured onphotographs, came to the hall and behaved in a manner appropriate to the subculture. The leadership of the House of Culture did not tolerate this. The exhibition was closed, and the organizer was asked to vacate the post.

Later, Alexander Lapin will return to Moscow State University to teach the basics of design and photo composition at the Faculty of Journalism. In the meantime, in the late 80s, he had something to do: exhibitions, participation in the creation of art albums, reportage photography. In the 1990s, he received recognition from the state. He was invited as an expert in photography to the Commission on State Prizes under the President. After 2000, the master publishes several books and opens the Lapin School.

Lapin's work

Lapin considered documentary to be the only living and worthwhile photograph. Even the plot of rare staged shots was dictated by life itself. At the same time, the photographer managed not only to preserve the liveliness and authenticity of the frame, but also to create a graphically integral work with a verified composition. Lapin's frames have a strict, clear geometry, harmoniously arranged with clear lines. For all photographs, the master created a preliminary sketch, on which he marked the plane of the image and technical data. Lapin's most famous works are The Boy, The Courtyard, The Kazan Station, The Kiss series.

Exhibitions

At the beginning of his career, Lapin exhibited his works at general indoor exhibitions of young artists on Malaya Gruzinskaya. The place was iconic among the Moscow avant-garde. The only drawback was only his smallsquare. The first personal exhibition of the photographer was held here in 1985. The following year, he took his work to Germany, to the city of Ottersberg. At the turn of the 80s and 90s, Lapin took part in several group exhibitions in Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, Paris, Helsinki and the USA.

Retrospective exhibitions of the master were held immediately after his death. Two major events were organized in 2013 and 2014. One was held in the FOTODOC exhibition hall, the other in the very center of Moscow, in the Manege.

Alexander Lapin: bibliography

Lapin turned out to be not only a talented photo artist, but also an excellent writer. His books on the art of photography have become bestsellers. The master shared in them his experience accumulated over many years of everyday hard work. The first "Plane and Space, or Life in a Square" was published in 2005. Here the author discussed the psychology of visual perception of a planar image. The book describes the structure of photography and the process of creating a harmonious composition from dissimilar elements.

The second work "Photography as…" was published in 2008. Once again, the author touches upon the process of perception of the frame by the viewer and its connection with the composition of the photograph. By 2015, the book had gone through 6 reprints. Now Lapin's works are considered classics of the theory of photography and must be read by everyone whose life is somehow connected with photography.

Reflections on photography

The photographer often said that the form in photography is no less important than the meaning. Rhythm and composition mustcomplement the idea of the picture and exist inseparably from it. Lapin was a hard worker, and he attributed his success to stubbornness. He told his students that there is no magic key to photography and perfect shots. Everyone has to forge it himself through long exercises with a camera. The talent of a photographer lies, first of all, in the ability to see, which is formed not spontaneously, but under the influence of the cultural experience of the viewer.

The second skill necessary for a photographer is the ability to see a three-dimensional composition on a plane. Indeed, often what seems to be an ideal composition in nature is crushed and disintegrates when printed on paper. Visual thinking is to a photographer what hearing is to a pianist. If it is, then the student will be good.

Alexander Lapin School

Alexander Lapin is a teacher who is said to be from God. In total, he devoted 30 years of his life to teaching. For decades, a circle of like-minded people gathered in his apartment, who discussed classical and new art, shared their findings. At these informal meetings, a generation of young photo artists grew up, whose school was live communication with the legend of Soviet photography. In 2009, a retrospective exposition was opened at the Winzavod, where, in addition to the master's works, his students exhibited their photos. Alexander Lapin was justly proud of them and their work. And in 2010, the Lapin School officially opened its doors to Promgraphics. Unfortunately, it did not last long.

Alexander Lapin quietly passed away in 2012. With his death, a whole page in the life of Russian photography was closed. Many of the works have gone to private galleries and collections, while some are kept in state museums in Boston and Washington, as well as in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.