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ISBN 978-5-0060-7309-8

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Sergey Shchekotov-Alexandrov
MAKING PHOTOS OF CULTURAL HERITAGE

Sergey Shchekotov-Alexandrov Making Photos of Cultural Heritage

In the book Making Photos of Cultural Heritage, a documentary photographer from St.Petersburg, Sergei Shchekotov-Aleksandrov, tells us about some of his trips during which he took photos of objects of cultural heritage.

There is information about 16 monuments of material and non-material culture from seven countries in the book.

The photographer collaborates with the St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum

He is a member of several creative unions.

One of them is the WORLDPRESSPHOTO Society in Holland.

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS THIS BOOK ABOUT

The idea of this book came to my mind when I decided to publish some of my books in 2020.

I have many photos associated with various cultural monuments in my photo library.

Before moving to St. Petersburg, I photographed cultural monuments, but not much. Since 2014, I have started to take photos of cultural objects more often. I began to participate in the traditional St. Petersburg international cultural forums in 2015. And since 2016, within the framework of these events, I have begun to organize my photo events of the “Instances of Heritage” cycle.

The book includes information about four such photo events that were conducted in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Each chapter is devoted to one photo event. The book shows and comments on some of the photos, gives information about the concept of events and how they were held.

ABOUT THE CLASSIFICATION OF CULTURAL MONUMENTS

I classify cultural monuments based on the approach proposed by cultural heritage specialists working under the guidance of UNESCO.

It is known that UNESCO is an international organization that deals with a variety of issues of science, culture, and education. In particular, it deals with the issues of preserving cultural heritage. The organization was created after World War II. Today it includes more than 195 countries.

So, according to the definition of UNESCO, cultural heritage is classified on three distinctive platforms.

The first platform is material heritage. The second is non-material heritage. The third is underwater heritage. The first platform is divided into two groups: World Heritage (that is, those monuments that are artefactitious, as they say) and natural heritage (made without human interference).

We will focus mainly on material cultural monuments in my photo events (and in the book).

HOW THE ST. PETERSBURG INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL FORUM WORKS

St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum is a relatively young public event. It has been held since 2012. Also, there are similar cultural forums in other regions of Russia. They include, for example, the Moscow Cultural Forum, the Ural Cultural Forum, etc.

A variety of Russian and foreign cultural figures meet and communicate at such events.

The St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum is the largest cultural event in Russia. It is visited annually by about 30,000 registered participants. About 100 countries send their representatives to the forum. There are a lot of regional delegations.

The forum has an internal structure: 14 sections, 3 tracks, a business site, Lecture Hall 2.0, a site for guest countries, a festival site, contests for art patrons and cultural workers. And many other programs.

I hold my photo events of the cycle “Instances of Heritage” as a part of one of the sections named the “Preservation of Cultural Heritage”.

COPYRIGHT ISSUES

Photos depicting the objects of cultural heritage are separated from other types of photography. For example, from portrait photos, or the photos of sports, or still lifes, nature, etc., because the cultural heritage has, figuratively speaking, authorization.

Or, to put it simply, the objects of cultural heritage are under the supervision of state organizations, under their tutelage.

What does it mean? Usually, these objects are museums. The state pays for their maintenance and restores them. It is forbidden to make photos of them in order to have some commercial profit. And in some museums, if you want to take a photo, you have to pay. Or sometimes they prohibit making videos or taking photos with a flash on.

Sometimes you need to get special permission to take photos. In other words, it is difficult to make photos.

This is how I explain why cultural heritage events in specialized photo sites (such as photo galleries, photo festivals or photo museums) are extremely rare.

Today it is popular to hold special photo contests, for which the photographs of the objects of cultural heritage collected from professional photographers and hobby photographers. I will talk about this a little in the fourth chapter of the book.

Chapter One UNESCO SITES

EVENT CONCEPT

The event was made based on the idea: to show photos and videos of two famous UNESCO sites in India – the cave complexes of Ajanta and Ellora.

I came up to A.O. Zagorsky, the moderator of the section “Preservation of Cultural Heritage”, with an idea to hold an evening of documentary photography as part of the 5th St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum. The idea was supported by O.V. Ryzhkov, who at that time was the head of the section “Preservation of Cultural Heritage”. My offer was accepted. The event was conducted in the Municipal Budgetary Institution of the Centralized Library System of the city of Gatchina in the Central Library named after A.I. Kuprin in November 2016.

THE AJANTA CAVE COMPLEX

The site dates back to the 2nd century BC. This is a former Buddhist temple and monastery cave complex located in the state of Maharashtra. It is a rock in the form of a horseshoe with 29 caves.

Let’s imagine mountains. And lots and lots of rocks. In these rocks, some kind of “rooms” were hollowed out – temples. In addition, rock paintings and sculptural compositions were also created there.

The skill of sculptors still surprises us. The colors of many paintings have not yet faded. And scientists fail to unravel the secret of making these colors.

The temple complex is located deep in the forest, and it is quite difficult to get there.

Each cave has its keeper from the museum. At the entrance to the complex, guidebooks that include descriptions of each cave are sold. And those who want to get into the caves need to go along a long rocky corridor that has safety fencing.

You cannot stop wondering looking at it.

People lived here, ate, prayed, died, had children.

The temple complex was built on the Silk Road. Therefore, travelers with trade carts often stopped there, which, of course, provided some financial support for building and construction works.

Rich Indian kings also helped the forest monks to maintain temples. What impressed me?

First of all, the age of these caves. They are more than two thousand years old. Of course, I looked at these amazing colors for a long time, which were applied by artists more than two thousand years ago.

I learned that sculptors and painters worked in so-called family guilds. And they did not reveal their tricks of the trade outside their family. That is why the secret of making non-fading colors has remained a secret. Apparently, a dynasty of a craftsman was stopped.

The cave complexes of Ajanta have a long history.

It is known that these temples were abandoned for a long time. Only in 1819, they were accidentally discovered by British soldiers that hunted tigers in this area. India was a colony of England at that time. Therefore, information about the “cultural wonder” very soon became known in London and then spread all over
Europe.

Interestingly, the researchers of the Ajanta rock paintings concluded that they showed the history of Indian civilization. It is known that the age of Indian civilization is 5 thousand years. So, the paintings reflected a life of three millennia. In addition, various religious Buddhist subjects were depicted on the frescoes.

I noticed that a lot of tourists from different countries come to the Ajanta.

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