Foreign photographers in Siberia: photography as a mean of dehumanization

This cultural research is the analysis of the foreign photographers’ activities in Siberia from the second half of the 19th century to the present time. We consider the issue of dehumanization of Russian society and culture by means of foreign photography. On the basis of real photographs published on the Internet, the author compiled a list of all Western photographers who visited Siberia and proved their destructive and countercultural, political, and non-artistic goals aimed at weakening the Russian state and Russian people dehumanization; we confirmed it by the final relevant foreign publications. Some research materials are documents of the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia and are the first time in scientific discourse. Until now, researchers considered the activities of foreign photographers in Eastern Siberia mainly in the specialty of history, exclusively as a source base positively. The novelty of this cultural research lies in the fact that foreign photography of Eastern Siberia is considered from the perspective of the tasks set for foreign photographers by their foreign customers, as well as from aesthetic and artistic positions. Thus, we prove the negative nature of the foreign photographers’ activities in Eastern Siberia.

photographers, Siberia, Trans-Siberian Railway, culture, Buryatia, propaganda, Irkutsk, photography, dehumanization, exile