PHOTOGRAPHY AS A TOOL FOR STUDYING THE MEMORIAL LANDSCAPE

The article describes the role of photography as a tool for studying the memorial landscape using the example of the Chelyabinsk State Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve “Arkaim”. As material, we used photographs specially taken for the study by a member of the temporary research team for the implementation of the grant of the Russian Science Foundation (jointly with the authorities of the Chelyabinsk region) No. 23-18-20098, https://rscf.ru/project/23-18-20098, the project “Materialized identity: construction of memory in the socio-economic perspective (on the example of the archaeological site Arkaim)”. The memorial landscape of Arkaim includes objects filled with a variety of meanings: historical, cultural, esoteric, philosophical. Spirals on the mountain tops, spiritual practices of Arkaim visitors, spontaneously formed paths captured in photographs characterize the objects of the memorial landscape as filled with esoteric, spiritual meaning. Historical objects, signs of scientific development of space, natural objects characterize the memorial landscape of Arkaim as filled with historical meanings. Art objects and installations indicate the desire of both ordinary visitors and representatives of the cultural intelligentsia for the philosophical development of space. The multifactorial nature of the image of Arkaim is an interesting object for research. Photography as a tool for such study, in turn, is, on the one hand, a means of objective recording of the surrounding space, a concept that makes it easier for the recipient to study the space, and on the other hand, it has the phenomenon of accentuation, being a subjective reflection of the photographer’s vision of space. The more professional the photography, the more the phenomenon of accentuation manifests itself, which must be taken into account by the researcher in the process of analyzing photographs.