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Boris Ignatovich (1899 - 1976)
Boris Ignatovich (1899-1976), first worked as a journalist and a newspaper editor before taking up photography in 1923. In the 1920s he worked for a number of publications, most notably, Bednota (Poverty), Krasnaia Niva (Red Field) and Ogonek. Ignatovich first gained attention through his photographs of village themes, particularly those taken in the Ramenskoe settlement near Moscow. He became a pupil of Alexander Rodchenko and was greatly influenced by his style. Both became members of the distinguished October group and in 1931, when Rodchenko was expelled, Ignatovich took over as head of the group until it was dissolved in 1932 by governmental decree. Ignatovich went on to pioneer the theory of collectivism in photojournalism at the Soiuzfoto agency where he developed specific rules of photography; photographers working under him signed their photographs “Ignatovich Brigade”. Ignatovich is also noted as the first Soviet photo-reporter to take aerial photographs. In the 1930s, he made several documentary films.