Photography in Uzbekistan started developing after 1882, when a

Volga German The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov ...

photographer and schoolteacher named Wilhelm Penner moved to Khiva as a part of the

Russian Mennonite The Russian Mennonites (german: Russlandmennoniten it. "Russia Mennonites", i.e., Mennonites of or from the Russian Empire occasionally Ukrainian Mennonites) are a group of Mennonites who are descendants of Dutch Anabaptists who settled for abo ...

migration to Central Asia led by Claas Epp, Jr. After his arrival in the Khanate of Khiva, Penner shared his photography skills with a local studen
Khudaybergen Divanov
who later became the founder of Uzbek photography. The first still photographs of Central Asia were shot by Russian photographer Anton Murenko, who came there with the Russian diplomatic mission in 1858. The first color photographs of Central Asia belong to

Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky ( rus, Сергей Михайлович Прокудин-Горский, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪxəjɫəvʲɪtɕ prəkudʲin ˈɡorskʲɪj, a=ru-Prokudin-Gorskii.ogg; – September 27, 1944) was a Ru ...

, one of the founders of color photography. Khudaybergen Divanov's photographs were unique in terms of demonstrating historically significant transition of Central Asian nations to the Soviet Union. Despite of his pioneering in this newly introduced type of

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...

with his

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

and documentary photographs in the region, Khudaybergen Divanov was repressed by the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

regime and executed in 1940. Upon his arrest, big part of Divanov's archive was destroyed by the law enforcement agencies; however, his family succeeded in preserving a part of the archive. Some of Divanov's works are currently preserved in the Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive at Krasnogorsk. In the Soviet period, many Uzbek photographers focused on documentary photography. One of the most prominent representatives of the Uzbek photography is

Max Penson Max Zakharovich Penson (russian: Макс Захарович Пенсон; 1893–1959) was a Russian-Jewish photojournalist and photographer of the Soviet Union noted for his photographs of Uzbekistan. Max Penson is one of the most prominent r ...

. Photojournalist Max Penson moved to

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

in 1915 and demonstrated historical,

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

, religious and political transformations that took place there under the Soviet influence by his photographs of unveiling and education of woman and children, construction of large-scale projects as

Great Fergana Canal The Great Fergana Canal (russian: Ферганский канал, tg, Фарғона Канал, uz, Fargʻona Kanali, ar, قناة فرغانة) is an irrigation canal located on the Fergana Valley between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in Central ...

and many others. His photograph titled "Uzbek Madonna" received the Grand Prize at the 1937 Universal Exhibition in Paris. In 1997, a building in the center of Tashkent city, which was constructed 1934 and had been used as the History Museum and the Art Exhibitions Directorate before, got the status of the Tashkent House of Photography. In 2005 Tashkent House of Photography was included in the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan. In 2009, photographer from Uzbekistan Umida Akhmedova, whose images have been published in the photography sections of the online editions of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' and ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', was officially accused of "defamation, insult and slander" of the Uzbek nation. Akhmedova's photo-album "Women and Men: From Dawn to Dusk" and a documentary film "The Burden of Virginity" were used as evidences against the photographer during the trial. She was found guilty and though the charges carried a prison sentence of up to three years, they were waived as saying that Akhmedova had been granted an amnesty in honor of the 18th anniversary of Uzbek independence.The New York Times
Officials See Slander in Uzbek Photos, but Artists See Censorship
. Retrieved 13 November 2010

References

{{Asia topic, Photography in Uzbekistani culture