Sergeiu Eseninu

1920–1930

Professor at VKhUTEMAS/VKhUTEIN

For ten years Rodchenko teaches in the woodworking and metalworking faculties (merged into the Dermetfak in 1928), training students to design multifunctional objects for everyday life and public buildings, expressive through construction rather than ornament.

1923–1928

LEF and Novy LEF with Mayakovsky

From 1923 to 1928 Rodchenko works closely with Mayakovsky — photographing him several times and designing and laying out LEF and Novy LEF, the Constructivists' publications; many of his photographs serve as their covers.

1924

Takes up photography

From 1924 Rodchenko takes his own photographs, becoming famous for his experiments with angles and viewpoints. His credo: “I want to teach people to see extraordinarily ordinary things.”

1925

Sent to Paris for the World Exhibition

Appointed to the Soviet exhibition committee, Rodchenko is sent to Paris to design the Soviet pavilion, built to Konstantin Melnikov's plans.

1926

First angled shots published in Sovetskoe Kino

The magazine Sovetskoe Kino publishes his first angled shots of buildings — the series “The Building on Myasnitskaya” (1925) and “The Mosselprom Building” (1926). Rodchenko champions high and low viewpoints and a dynamic, documentary-precise view of the world.

1928

First accused of formalism

The charge of “formalism” that would dog Rodchenko is first raised in 1928 in the pages of Sovetskoe Foto. By some accounts, that same year he joins the October group.