Generals of 70’s. Not bright glamour of Soviet epoque

Elena Samorodova, Vera Samorodova, Sergey Sonin

The media project «Generals of the Seventies» is a series of production photographs — double portraits of the well-known personages of the «city scene», brilliant representatives of the Bohemia and original «defenders of the landscape», depicted in the guise of Soviet high command generals of the seventies. The youthful, magnificent generals of the Great Soviet Empire.

The authors of the project did not intend to create a stylized «document» image, but something that would become an object of art and an instrument of advertising. The pictures themselves address the epoch of the Empire’s zenith, borrowing from it the unassuming chic and scale and using precise, typical fetishes of the time. They create an atmosphere of ongoing national growth, as if the story of the Great Empire has never ceased, the vertical values and the cannons are still in place, the territory of the Great State is not only intact, but is in fact growing due to new geopolitical triumphs. «... Constantinople is already ours. Our aircraft-carriers and destroyers are in the Bosporus!»

Authors:
Sergei Sonin, Head of the Creative Association KB «Svetosila», director.
Elena Samorodova, Photographer, artist, architect, Member of the Russian Union of Photoartists.
Vera Samorodova, Architect, photographer, artist, Member of the Russian Union of Photoartists, Member of the Group «Association of Architects», Moscow.
With the assistance of Aleksandr Savatiugin

Participants of the project:
1. Edward Muradian, Chief producer of the «Moscow» project, businessman, patron of arts.
2. Igor Vdovin, Composer, musician.
3. Mikhail Barkhin, President of the «Happiness Corporation», architect, artist.
4. Oleg Tsvetkov, Businessman, co-owner of the company «Cabinet», patron of arts.
5. Konstantin Murzenko, Script-writer, director, actor.
6. Denis Neimand, Producer, director, artist.
7. Konstantin Agunovich, Art historian, critic, journalist.
8. Aleksei Kazakov Journalist, reviewer, editor-in-chief of the weekly «Bolshoi Gorod».
9. Ivan Sharapov, Traveller.
10. Zakhar Kolovski, Photographer. General director of the «State Center of Photography» (St. Petersburg).
11. Ivan Chechiot, Scholar, art historian, curator of art projects, professor.
12. Arkadi Ippolitov, Art historian, curator of art projects.
13. Georgi Gurianov, Artist, musician.
14. Yegor Ostrov, Artist, member of the «Rechniki» Group.v 15. Oleg Nazarov, Promoter.
16. Andrei Haas, Promoter.
17. Sergei Skribo, Businessman, co-owner of the «Extra» brand.