About the Hub

  • Advertisement for Efte photographic postcard paper. Manufactured by Efte in Moscow. Reproduced on the inside of the back cover of Sovetskoe foto, no. 10 (October 1927). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Judith Rothschild Foundation

    Moscow, the cultural capital of the new Soviet Union, was also a nexus of photographic manufacturing activity. Although raw materials for the products came from sources scattered throughout the Soviet Union and abroad, factories abounded in and around Moscow. Glass-plate negatives had been manufactured domestically since 1906, but photographic paper was not produced until 1927. Foreign photographic products were advertised as widely available during the New Economic Policy, between 1917 and 1922, and though the first Five Year Plan, which ended in 1932. In that period, Soviet photographic, cinematic, and chemical cooperatives were widely advertised as well, and the domestic brands EFTE Buma, Foros Bumagi, and Red Star were marketed through government-supported trusts, distributors, and cooperatives such as Gonetts, SovKinTorg, and Foto-Khimicheskii Trest. By the beginning of the second Five Year Plan, in 1933, advertisements for both foreign and domestic photographic papers for general use had dropped precipitously, as had their availability. Thereafter, licensed photographers and youth clubs were apportioned supplies in allotments by the government.

    —Lee Ann Daffner

Manufacturers

  • Beginning in 1927
    State sponsored manufacturer

Walther Artists Who Used These Products

For best results, please enable JavaScript.