NOVATOR: 1960—1970

During the post-Stalinist "thaw", like-minded people enjoyed greater freedom to associate with each other — and photographers were no exception. The photography clubs at the Houses of Culture (which existed in every city and town) got their start with photographers talking with each other in photo stores. These clubs quickly became virtual universities of photographic culture a full decade before departments of photography were established in state universities. The Moscow club Novator had as many as three hundred members. Such leading lights of Russian photography as Boris Ignatovich, S. Ivanov-Alliluev, and Alexander Khlebnikov stood at the head.