Description:
exterior, hay fields, five women, all wearing head scarves, walk toward the camera, one with rake and two with pitch forks, center woman holding a child on her shoulder
Label Text:
Markov was a Russian photographer who worked as a press agent and became a serious photographer during the Second World War. In 1943 he enlisted as an army correspondent for a Russian Military publication. After the war, his work was used for propaganda purposes, mostly to create an idealized picture of Russia and to inspire the people. Photographs of vital peasants and determined miners were hung in government buildings and city institutions to promote optimism among the workers.
Markov’s photograph Happy Maternity exemplifies this type of national propaganda. This image of young, joyous farm women who combine motherhood with communal farm work advances the ideological message. This is not Christianized motherhood modeled after the Virgin Mary, as we find in the West, but rather a visual message meant to convey the ease with which work and child rearing go together in communal life. HKDV
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+2007.60.38 |
