Veselkova, N., Gramatchikova, N., Pryamikova, E. (2025) Photographs as Things: Practices and Assemblages (Cases of a Small Town) – МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ ЖУРНАЛ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ

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Natalia V. VESELKOVA
Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin
51 Lenin St, 620083 Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation
Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Sociology
PhD (in Sociological Sciences)
e-mail: vesselkova@yandex.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-0855-8901

Natalia B. GRAMATCHIKOVA
Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
16 S. Kovalevskoy st., 620066 Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation
Senior Researcher, Center for the History of Literature
PhD (in Philological Sciences)
e-mail: n.gramatchikova@gmail.com
ORCID: 0000-0002-2585-7399

Elena V. PRYAMIKOVA
Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin
51 Lenin St, 620083 Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation
Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Sociology
Doctor of Sociological Sciences
e-mail: pryamikova@yandex.ru
ORCID: 0000-0002-6783-008X

Veselkova, N., Gramatchikova, N., Pryamikova, E. (2025) Photographs as Things: Practices and Assemblages (Cases of a Small Town)

Abstract: The purpose of the article is to study the material essence of photographs, possible transformations in the process of their creation and use. For photographs as things, the category of life's journey is quite applicable. At the same time, we are trying to get away from the clearly dominant discourse of identifying the meaning of a taken photo, what can be called the dictate of content. In this article, we will focus on the material side of photographs in the context of new materiality. Our focus is on the practices of assemblage, collecting people and photographs into a single whole. The manifestation of the agency of a photograph in relation to the people who use it is revealed. The agency of a photograph can be enhanced in a situation of remediation, placing a photograph in a public space. The initiative to place a photograph, to give it a second life, on the one hand, comes from people, on the other, it is provoked by the photograph itself. Various combinations of relationships between people and photographs constitute the practices of assemblage. The article considers various options not only for storing, but also for producing and reproducing photographs, as well as their collection, transfer, including donation, and placement. The empirical basis is the materials of our research in 2018-2023, which resulted in a large volume of photographs taken by the researchers themselves, including those involving recycling and remediation of photographs already taken by the residents of the small town themselves. The article analyzes 4 cases – a collection of photographs of the Mednogorsk parish, an album about the teachers of the Danilov school, a photo album of the Kachkanar motor depot, a photo archive of the Union of Young Scientists and Specialists of Pushchino. Each of the cases is distinguished by its own history of creation - the peculiarities of collecting photographic material, the design of the albums, and the methods of their presentation. The cases were selected based on the principle of maximum variation; the collection of photographs of young scientists from Pushchino is distinguished by its humorous, playful nature. The album of the Kachkanar motor depot reproduces the history of the enterprise, including both the achievements of employees and the "failures" associated with violations of one or another driver. Comments on the photographs are secondary in relation to the photos themselves, which emphasizes their agency.

Key words: photographs, materiality, assemblage, assemblage of practice, dictate of content, recycling, remediation, photo album, photo archive.

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For Citation:

Veselkova, N., Gramatchikova, N., Pryamikova, E. (2025) Photographs as Things: Practices and Assemblages (Cases of a Small Town). International Journal of Cultural Research, 1 (58). 35–47. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2025_1_48

DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2025_1_48