PHOTOILLUSTRATION OF BELARUSIAN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIODICS: BASIC APPROACHES

The study is based on the study of the visual content of periodicals that were published on the territory of the Belarusian provinces as part of the Russian Empire. The chronological scope of the study covers the period from 1850 to October 1917. Periodicals that posted photographs on their pages were identified. It has been established that on the pages of the publications «Mogilevskie gubernskie vedomosti», «Nasha Nіva», «Zapiski Severo-Zapadnogo Otdela Imperatorskogo Russkogo Geograficheskogo Obshchestva», «Bolotovedenie», photo illustration was systematic. For the first time, based on the study of genre, thematic, and visual features of more than 500 photographs published in pre-revolutionary newspapers and magazines, approaches to photographic illustration of periodicals were identified: news, figurative-art, and scientific. Attention is paid to establishing the relationship between the photograph and the accompanying text. Conclusions are drawn about the originality of Belarusian press photography of the pre- revolutionary period and the formation of the prerequisites for the emergence of Belarusian photojournalism.