‘The charge that Rodchenko had plagiarized Western formalism (…) it claimed, Rodchenko’s photographs betrayed the revolution in favor of a purely formal contemplation of reality. Thus, they claimed, Rodchenko produced copies of empty forms without content.”The article attempted to illustrate this charge by means of a visual juxtaposition, with three of Rodchenko’s photographs (…) The intention of the juxtaposition, however, was to show that in Rodchenko’s works form had already triumphed over content, and that their content was therefore arbitrary, interchangeable, and empty of (social) significance.’
‘Rodchenko responded to the accusation of plagiarism with an open letter in which he adopted the methods of his critics and selected four photographs, in an effort to show that similar compositions were a result of universal visual phenomena as well as a natural consequence of imitation, which he described as a necessary and essential aspect of art.’ ‘What kind of times are they, when A talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors?’
When a Photograph of Trees Is Almost like a Crime BERND STIEGLER
