Amateur photography in 1920s Leningrad: institutional practices and visual strategies in the context of Soviet cultural policy

The aim of this study is to examine the development of the amateur photography movement in Leningrad during the 1920s within the context of Soviet cultural policy, based on archival materials from the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg, periodicals of the 1920s, and relevant regulatory documents. The research established that despite efforts to create a mass movement, amateur photography remained limited in scope due to a weak material base and formalism in the work of public organizations, and the emerging visual canon of mass photography had not gained widespread popularity by the late 1920s. The scientific novelty lies in the comprehensive analysis of institutional strategies, the social composition of participants, and the formation of the visual canon of the early Soviet amateur photography movement.