“THE VOICE OF THE WORK PEOPLE. Propaganda photos of Pärnu in the 1950s ”

The exhibition, compiled on the basis of press photos preserved in the photo collection of the Pärnu Museum, reflects the fantasy world modeled by Soviet propaganda of the 1950s. Instead of this everyday life, which according to descriptions and memories is rather comforting, frightened and carried away by moody moods, we see here a emphatically sunny and joyful ideal society. The source material of the exhibition is a sub-collection, which contains the photo material of the former voice carrier of the Pärnu district “Voice of the Working People”. The large-format reprints of the original photos relentlessly highlight the “staging” of the newspaper photo at the time, as in addition to the censored choice of subjects, propaganda goals were also supported by photographic tools such as collage and strong retouching.