Legendary photographer vadim gippenreiter. Vadim Gippenreiter: “I have been to Lake Baikal twice and haven’t taken a single photo. What places in Russia are my favorite

In 1934 he began skiing under the guidance of Gustav Deberli (Austria). The first master of sports of the USSR in alpine skiing (1937). The first USSR slalom champion (1937). USSR slalom champion in 1938. From 1937 to 1960 - Alpine skiing coach of the sports societies "Vita" and "Zenith".

In 1948 he was educated as a sculptor, graduating from the Moscow Art Institute named after Surikov. After graduating from the institute he took a great interest in photography. He was engaged in mountaineering and mountain skiing. He was the first USSR champion in downhill skiing in 1937. He also became the first to ski down Elbrus in 1939. In the future, he won the championship of the Soviet Union in alpine skiing three times. Vadim Gippenreiter's photo albums "From Kamchatka" are very famous. He became one of the few who filmed The Eruption of Tolbachik in 1975.

Cousin and ex-husband of Yulia Borisovna Gippenreiter. He has three children (two daughters and a son), five grandchildren, two great-grandchildren.

Presidential decree Russian Federation D. A. Medvedev No. 188 of February 12, 2012 Vadim Evgenievich Gippenreiter was awarded the Order of Honor.

Works and exhibitions

He is the author of 28 photo albums on sports, art, nature, in his archive there are about 50 thousand formatted slides. gold medal International Exhibition INTERPRESSPHOTO (1966). Member of the Union of Journalists of the USSR, member of the Union of Photo Artists of Russia.

Published photo albums:

• Fairy tales of the Russian forest. M., 1967.
• To the volcanoes of Kamchatka. M., 1970.
• Teberda - Dombay. M., 1970.
• Zaonezhye. Museum-reserve in the open air. M., 1972.
• Commanders. M., 1972.
• Novgorod. M., 1976.
• The peaks are ahead. In the mountains of Kabardino-Balkaria. M., 1978.
• The birth of a volcano. M., 1979.
• Meshcherskaya side. M., 1981.
• Melodies of the Russian forest. M., 1983.
• Seasons. M., 1987.
• Middle Asia. Architectural monuments of the 9th-19th centuries M., 1987.
• The harmony of the eternal. Ancient art of Karelia. Petrozavodsk, 1994. ISBN 5-88165-004-2.

“Vadim Evgenievich died at the dacha. This is the death of a true legend. He was a legend in many ways. He was undoubtedly a legend in Soviet photography in the late and middle Soviet period. He didn’t live to be 100 years old, ”the master's apprentice, famous photographer Anton Lange told TASS.

According to him, Gippenreiter, in terms of the scale of his contribution to the photography of Russia, can be compared only with the most famous American photographer Ansel Adams.

The interlocutor of the agency emphasized that Vadim Gippenreiter was the first photographer who made classic photographs in the most exotic places in Russia. His authorship belongs to the legendary footage of the birth of the Tolbachik volcano in 1975, which became famous all over the world. “Gippenreiter filmed standing on the edge of the crater, with a huge risk to his life,” said Anton Lange.

Vadim Gippenreiter was born on April 22, 1917 in Moscow. According to him, from early childhood he was left to himself, walking and studying everything around in a childish, inquisitive way. He could sit on the bank of the river with a fire all night. “I have lived most of my life in the open air, in Moscow - on short visits. From an early age, he wandered and spent the night in the forest, made fires in bad weather, met the sunrises by the river. Expecting the awakening of the fish, I hypnotized the fishing rod's float, barely visible in the predawn fog, ”said the master.

He became interested in photography after graduating from the Surikov Moscow Art Institute. He himself put the camera on a tripod, covered it with a rag, built a picture on frosted glass, took pictures of all the relatives. Taking pictures on glass plates, he himself developed them in red.

“Many of us in our youth try to prove to ourselves that we are capable of overcoming unusual situations. For me, such a situation was an autonomous life in the forest. Soon I realized that I can kill an animal or a bird, use mushrooms, berries, but why? Everything turned out to be a more difficult task: you need to shoot what you see, turn what you see into visible images. So I've been shooting nature all my life, ”the photographer said.

The desire to see the reserved corners of nature with his own eyes turned Gippenreiter into a traveler. He traveled almost all over Russia, because it is simply impossible to see all of it, according to the master. Most of all, Gippenreiter loved the north. Karelia, Kola Peninsula, Ural, Far East, Chukotka, Commander Islands... He traveled all over the Kuril Islands, visited Baikal several times. The master traveled to Kamchatka for 40 years: “I lived in Kamchatka for a long time, filming volcanic eruptions; spawning of salmon in rivers; brown bears, which can be seen in broad daylight by the river or in the berry tundra. Taking pictures of bears up close when they are in the open is not a test for the faint of heart and, perhaps, unreasonable, given their unpredictability and irascible nature. "

At first, his landscape photographs were required as illustrations on the theme "Wide is my native country" in albums for party congresses in order to dilute the portraits of general secretaries. The Smena magazine published essays on the seasons. The landscapes were published in the magazines Around the World and Sovetsky Soyuz, which were distributed abroad. After noisy debates in the publishing house "Soviet Artist" the album "Tales of the Russian Forest" was released. The main artist took full responsibility, because there was not a single person in the photographs. But the edition with black and white photographs was sold before it reached the shelves. “It was one of the first albums with my lyrics, and now there are 30 of them. They were released in the USA, England, Germany, France, Czechoslovakia. Well, with us, of course, "- said Vadim Gippenreiter. His photographs have become the standards of the genre, making his author an internationally recognized master.

All photographs of the master are medium and large format slides. For a long time he shot with a wooden camera made in 1895, technically improving it on his own for modern lenses and photosensitive materials. The old wooden case is equipped with the most modern optics and film.

Vadim Gippenreiter is also known for being the first to ski down Elbrus (in 1939), became the first USSR champion in downhill and slalom (1937) and the first master of sports of the USSR in alpine skiing (1937).

Every photographer in life has his own starting point, the moment when you raise the camera for the next shot, you already understand exactly why you are doing this and what result you want to get. V landscape photography It is practically impossible to do without this state, without personal perception of the world around you. It is not difficult to teach a person to press the shutter button, set the correct shutter speed and aperture, and even process and print the resulting frames. But to make you see, feel what you are filming is impossible. Everyone comes to this on his own, or does not come ...

Photos of Vadim Evgenievich Gippenreiter, or rather his photo albums "Meshchera Side" and "Harmony of the Eternal", which I first saw back in the mid-90s, made a strong impression on me. Then the understanding came that the landscape is not only beautiful picture, sunset or sunrise, mountains, sea or forest ... This is, first of all, a state - a state of nature and a state of a photographer who has passed what he saw through himself. It is through his eyes that we see all the beauty and diversity of the reality around us. The works of Gippenreiter became for me the very starting point that completely changed the attitude towards landscape photography...

For 20 years I have been able to collect almost all of his photo books. Friends gave something, I could find something in second-hand bookshops. They even sent them from Ukraine. But the most powerful memories are associated, of course, with personal communication. In the spring of 2004 in the "Photo Center" on Gogolevsky, a personal exhibition of Vadim Evgenievich - "Ascent" was held. It was impossible to miss such an event ...

By that time, I knew most of his published works almost to the point. But photographs in large format are difficult to compare with landscape printing, you can only admire what you see. There were many questions. Vadim Evgenievich turned out to be an excellent companion, outwardly strict, but with amazing charm and fantastic energy. We also asked him about the old wooden camera with sheet film, which he never parted with, changing only the optics to a more modern one. There were also questions about the shooting technique.

(Kizhi / photo by V. Gippenreiter)

I also asked him about master classes in landscape photography, if he was planning to do it. He smiled and, looking with his surprisingly piercing gaze, replied: - What can I teach? Anyone can use a camera today, all this is on the Internet, and cameras are now completely for the lazy - I don’t want to shoot ... Learn composition? For this there are museums - everything has been written there hundreds of times, go - look, remember ... But to understand, to feel that you need to shoot right here and now, to see - you cannot teach this, either the photographer has it or not .. . "

(V. Gippenreiter, "Photo Center", 2004)

Gippenreiter shot all his life with a camera made in 1895. And he brought it up to the required condition - for modern cassettes and lenses. And the slope of the back of the chamber made it possible to play with perspective. The ability to move the front wall up and down and to the sides - the movement that corrects perspective, the basis of wide-angle photography - has been in wooden cameras from the beginning. They were real professional cameras - he said, remaining faithful to his cameras to this day ...

(volcanologists against the background of the Tolbachik volcano eruption in 1975 / photo by V. Gippenreiter)

There were many more questions and answers, but for some reason they did not stick in my memory at all, but I still remember his work on the walls of the "Photo Center" ...

(White Sea coast / photo by V. Gippenreiter)

Its archive contains over 50,000 photographs, mostly captured on color format reversible film. At 87, he was still cheerful and energetic. He continued to ski, which he did not part with all his life ...

(with friends on the foto.ru project, 2004)

There are practically no photographs with the author, which is not surprising. The photographer always shoots himself, and it is very rare for someone to shoot him. But quite by accident I found this photo with a taimen on the network from the 1957 video "In the Sayan Mountains" (you can watch the film itself)

(still from the film In the Sayan Mountains)

I will not retell the biography of Vadim Evgenievich, all this in sufficient volume has long been on the network. Here are just a few of his wonderful words, which I remember over and over again when I look through the camera's viewfinder at the amazing beauty of the world around us ...

- I shoot what I like. You have to bear your own attitude and perception of the landscape. Landscape is, first of all, the relationship between your inner state and the state of nature. It can be interesting, or it can be indifferent ...

(Lena Pillars / photo by V. Gippenreiter)

- I had such states when I was dragging the device all day and didn’t take anything off. When there is no landscape, no mood, no state ...

(photo by V. Gippenreiter)

- Try to get five artists to paint a portrait of the same person. You get five different portraits, and each of them is a self-portrait of the artist himself. His attitude, his decision. It's the same with photography ...

(photo by V. Gippenreiter)

- An artist creates something out of nothing, an artist can take something from his head, from his intelligence. And the photographer deals with real-life objects. The photographer states the fact with his own attitude. This statement can turn into a work of art if done with the appropriate attitude. In photography, it is very important to convey the state of the moment. In gray weather, for example, some foggy places, a foggy sky, appropriate lighting under your feet, an appropriate general mood. If this mood is conveyed, then the photo can be said to have taken place. And if this state does not exist, then a fake picture is obtained, which has nothing to do with this image. Therefore, there must be a very holistic approach to what you see, your own attitude and the ability to realize what you feel. And don't forget about that ...

(photo by V. Gippenreiter)

- To get a good feel for the landscape, you have to live in it for some time ...

(photo by V. Gippenreiter)(photo by V. Gippenreiter)

On July 16, 2016, at the age of 99, Vadim Evgenievich Gippenreiter passed away ...

Middle lane, Ural, Kamchatka, Kuril and Commander Islands, nature and architectural monuments. Until recently, he continued to travel and photograph.

Over the years devoted to photography, Vadim Evgenievich has never used digital technology. 70 years ago, it simply did not exist, and now he prefers analog camera any modern.

The most famous Russian photographer talks about himself and his own attitude to photography.

- Vadim Evgenievich, how and when did you start taking photographs?

I grew up on the banks of the Moskva River, in the open air. From a young age he was left to his own devices. From 5-7 years old I could easily sit on the bank of the river waiting for dawn, with a tiny fire. The most mysterious time is when the night ends and the first gap appears. And so it went on all my life. I am, of course, a biologist by nature. But I was kicked out of the biology department because my father was a nobleman. Then I was admitted to the medical institute as an athlete - by that time I was already the champion of Moscow, the champion of the USSR, and in 1939 I was the first to leave the summit of Elbrus. General biology was taught very well at the medical institute. But a doctor must be a narrow specialist, and that did not suit me - to put my life on one specialty. I transferred to an art institute and graduated in 1948. At this time, the personality cult flourished, money was paid only for portraits of leaders. I didn’t know how to do that either. So I worked as a ski coach for 20 years while doing photography.

I started shooting in early childhood. Every intelligent family had wooden cameras - and Russian production, and overseas. Since the age of seven, we have already poked our noses into all this equipment, put the camera on a tripod, covered ourselves with a rag, built a picture on the frosted glass. And when relatives gathered, we were forced to take pictures. Filmed on glass plates, they themselves were developed in red light - the whole process was in the hands.

After the war, I took up hunting. Hunting taught me to understand the forest and to the fact that photographing is much more difficult than killing a bird or an animal. During the development of the forest, I photographed everything related to hunting and the forest. And when the Fizkultura i Sport publishing house decided to publish the Hunter's Handbook, they did not have any illustrative materials. And everything that I photographed for myself simply out of my own curiosity, out of my attitude to this matter - everything fell into place: the tracks of a bear in the mud; hunting with decoy duck; a bear pounding the bark as it cleans its claws. And on my trips, I purposefully photographed Russian nature, reserved Russia. Since I was quite serious and correct about the forest, I was allowed into any territory. I could shoot on the territory of the reserve, as in the White Sea, and nearby, on some islands.

All my life I have been shooting with a camera made in 1895. And I myself brought it to the required condition - for modern cassettes and lenses. And the slope of the rear wall of the chamber, the possibility of displacing the front wall up and down and to the sides - movements that correct the perspective, the basis of wide-angle shooting - were in wooden cameras back in those days. These were real professional cameras.

- What are your favorite places in Russia?

I myself am a northern person, so I traveled more to the north. Karelia, the Kola Peninsula, the Urals, the Far East, Chukotka, Kamchatka, the Commander Islands ... I have traveled a very large part of Russia. Was on all the Kuril Islands. But it makes no sense to say that I have visited Russia everywhere - Russia is so immense and diverse. Wherever you go, in any direction - everything is new. Kamchatka is always different. How many times have I filmed there - every time everything changed. And wherever you go in Siberia, everything is always new.

I traveled to Kamchatka for 40 years. On my first visit, I got acquainted with volcanologists and then I was aware of all the events in Kamchatka. As soon as something happened there, I was immediately informed, and I went there. I knew about the eruption of the Tolbachik volcano in advance. For a whole year this eruption lasted, then subsided, then reappeared, and for a whole year I filmed there. Many people with apparatus avoid these filming, because there endlessly ash falls on their heads, there is no water, rainwater is acidic, no food is good in it ... One apparatus was smashed to me by a volcanic bomb - a piece of solidified lava. There is a photograph of me sitting and doing something, and a lava flow is crumbling behind. And the kettle is on a piece of hot lava. The volcanologist Heinrich Steinberg took me out. I tell him: "Come on, sit in my place, now I will take you off." While we were changing places, a cobblestone flew in and crashed into the lid of the teapot, jammed it tightly. And in the next frame, Heinrich is already sitting with this teapot.

Nobody knew when the eruption would end. I had to constantly go to Moscow for the film. I brought a supply of film in the expectation that it would be enough for me to shoot. But the eruption continued, the film ended, and we had to fly to Moscow again. At some point, everything ended, and there was absolute silence. This was very unusual, because we had already got used to the continuous rumble. Igneous rocks react with oxygen, new chemical processes begin, a new heating of the same lava. And after 10 years I went there to film these processes. So I have enough material on Tolbachik for 10 albums.

- Are there places in Russia where you have not been and you regret it?

Of course. Is it possible for one person to visit Russia everywhere! I have been to Lake Baikal twice and have not taken a single photo. Because you have to live there long enough to take pictures. I have been abroad, but I do not need anything there. This is not mine. Where everything is inhabited, there is nothing to shoot. And nature is immense and varied.

- Did you always know that you would shoot on every trip?

I never drove just like that, I always drove with a specific task and with a specific purpose. I chose a place where I knew that I would work seriously. And most of my life I traveled alone, that's why I'm uncomfortable. I traveled to places associated with a hike, with an autonomous life: as long as possible, I took some kind of transport, and then walked on foot. All on yourself: a backpack with a tent, equipment, an ax, a sleeping bag.

You can drive along by car, but this is an old culture, old monuments, city-museums. There is a lot of material there, but this is still a civilized shooting.

A person comes to such a place and realizes that thousands of people were filmed here before. Can you see something new for yourself?

Of course, because every photographer shoots what the other person does not see. And each person shoots in his own way, if he has his own idea of ​​what is good and what is bad. A person travels to places where another will not go. Even the same place is seen differently by everyone. This is especially striking in art. If five artists paint a portrait of one person, then you get five different portraits. Because each person brings into the person he writes his own attitude, his own understanding of him. Every photographer also sees differently. Therefore, there are an infinite number of options. Everything changes from year to year, something new appears everywhere. It all depends on the approach, on the state of nature, on the season.

I have had such conditions when I was dragging the device all day and did not take anything off. When there is no landscape, no mood, no state - there is an interesting texture underfoot, something like still lifes, some leaves, a puddle, a stream with frogs. And I started looking for such textures. And when you make a book, these photographs always fall into place.

When shooting landscapes, most photographers feel the stereotype of the approach. Everyone loves to shoot sunsets ...

-… and sunny weather. In the middle of the day, I usually didn’t take pictures. This is a flat lighting from one point. The worse the weather, the more fun it is to shoot. The landscape is my attitude to what I like. I do not like empty sunny landscapes, when everything is equally lit, colorful, bright, beautiful - and everything is the same. And in bad weather there is always a certain mood, some nuances. In the sun, you can also sometimes extract wonderful beautiful things, but the sun depersonalizes the landscape. The worse the weather, the more interesting it is to me. In the worst weather, everything is constantly changing, something new appears. And the changes in the weather conditions are also interesting: there are different shifts in the clouds, in the lighting, the general condition changes.

Travelers often find themselves in an interesting place in a matter of hours. There is a route, there is a time frame, but there is no necessary lighting ...

Therefore, I always went alone. The group needs to go through the route, but as a photographer I need to sit here for a couple of days. When shooting is done on the go, when many people are connected with each other, there can be only random pictures. I myself went on difficult hikes. But I was influential as a participant in the hike and sometimes just set a condition: here we will stand for 2-3 days. I sailed with volcanologists on a tiny boat throughout the Kuril Islands, and we stopped where I needed to shoot. In the Kuril Islands you will not expect good weather, just like in Kamchatka, and there was little shooting there. But I filmed everything the volcanologists needed.

I have been to Kamchatka for a very long time, it is impossible to shoot something there in a short time. Kamchatka is surrounded on one side by the Pacific Ocean, on the other side by the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The water temperature is 4 degrees. There is always a thick layer of clouds above this refrigerator. And when all this mass of clouds begins to run over Kamchatka, then two steps away you can not see anything. You can sit in Kamchatka for a month and take off nothing except your rubber boots. Therefore, it is simply not serious to expect that I will come to Kamchatka and shoot a lot of material right away.

- Is it possible to determine the ideal shooting point, or is it just a subjective perception of the world?

Of course, this is a subjective perception. But it is also knowledge of some laws of handling a plane. Photography uses the laws of art, dealing with the plane. The image should not destroy this plane, but form it. You need to know the laws of composition, the laws of constructing such a design of the plane. A picture hung on a wall should not pierce the wall with its endless perspective. In this case, depth may be present. That is, some objects close the front side of this depth, something closes the back side - a blurred forest or clouds. As in an aquarium, there is a space between the two walls. This is a serious art history issue that photographers usually don't think about.

An artist creates something out of nothing, an artist can take something from his head, from his intelligence. And the photographer deals with real-life objects. The photographer states the fact with his own attitude. This statement can turn into a work of art if done with the appropriate attitude. In photography, it is very important to convey the state of the moment. In gray weather, for example, some foggy places, a foggy sky, appropriate lighting under your feet, an appropriate general mood. If this mood is conveyed, then the photo can be said to have taken place. And if this state does not exist, then a fake picture is obtained, which has nothing to do with this image. Therefore, there must be a very holistic approach to what you see, your own attitude and the ability to realize what you feel. And we must not forget about this.

In 1934 he began skiing under the guidance of Gustav Deberli (Austria). The first master of sports of the USSR in alpine skiing (1937). The first USSR slalom champion (1937). USSR slalom champion in 1938. From 1937 to 1960 - Alpine skiing coach of the sports societies "Vita" and "Zenith".

In 1948 he was educated as a sculptor, graduating from the Moscow Art Institute named after Surikov. After graduating from the institute he took a great interest in photography. He was engaged in mountaineering and mountain skiing. He was the first USSR champion in downhill skiing in 1937. He also became the first to ski down Elbrus in 1939. In the future, he won the championship of the Soviet Union in alpine skiing three times. Vadim Gippenreiter's photo albums "From Kamchatka" are very famous. He became one of the few who filmed The Eruption of Tolbachik in 1975.

Cousin and ex-husband of Yulia Borisovna Gippenreiter. He has three children (two daughters and a son), five grandchildren, two great-grandchildren.

By the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation D. A. Medvedev No. 188 dated February 12, 2012, Vadim Evgenievich Gippenreiter was awarded the Order of Honor.

Works and exhibitions

He is the author of 28 photo albums on sports, art, nature, in his archive there are about 50 thousand formatted slides. Gold medal of the International Exhibition "INTERPRESSPHOTO" (1966). Member of the Union of Journalists of the USSR, member of the Union of Photo Artists of Russia.

Published photo albums:

• Fairy tales of the Russian forest. M., 1967.
• To the volcanoes of Kamchatka. M., 1970.
• Teberda - Dombay. M., 1970.
• Zaonezhye. Museum-reserve in the open air. M., 1972.
• Commanders. M., 1972.
• Novgorod. M., 1976.
• The peaks are ahead. In the mountains of Kabardino-Balkaria. M., 1978.
• The birth of a volcano. M., 1979.
• Meshcherskaya side. M., 1981.
• Melodies of the Russian forest. M., 1983.
• Seasons. M., 1987.
• Middle Asia. Architectural monuments of the 9th-19th centuries M., 1987.
• The harmony of the eternal. Ancient art of Karelia. Petrozavodsk, 1994. ISBN 5-88165-004-2.