Reconstructing E-E KOZLOV's photo archive from the 1980s • Chapter 12. How to bring a system to perfection • © Hannelore Fobo, 2021

The core of an archive is an index structuring the database. When I started labelling the digital images, my idea was to unite a page number with a contact sheet number: merging both nomenclatures, the file name itself would constitute an index name, containing all information necessary to locate an image in the books.

Put differently, for each frame, I combined its image name of a XX11 type with a contact print number consisting of seven digits, separating them by EKN. The abbreviation stands for Evgenij Kozlov + “negative”. Returning to the example of BB55 and its “alternative” label 3028551, we get BB55 + EKN + 3028551 = BB55EKN3028551.

Accordingly, in case no negative is available, I used EKP, Evgenij Kozlov + “positive”. With AG14, we get AG14 + EKP + 3044102 = AG14EKP3044102. The file name looks a little frightening, but I could still use the film frame label, BB55 – or AG14, respectively – as a shortcut.

I applied these files names to the first large portion of films, but this is obviously a very laborious way of spending one’s time just preparing the work that was to be carried out – the description of the images – and not even carrying out the work itself. Later, when I added more films to the digital archive, I decided not to return to this system. All images now simply go by an XX11 label.

Instead, I united both nomenclatures in an index, the table presented in Chapter 10. more>>

The index is actually more comprehensive, although it isn’t a full index, as it has information about the filmstrips, but not about the single images in a filmstrip. So far, the index exists only for Book 1, not for Book 2.

The table below gives an example for film BB. The second column contains some basic information about the event. The seventh column refers to way the numbers are distributed the numbers (bottom, ascending), and the last column indicates the total number of frames in a film (without black frames).

Index for the BB filmstrips
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
BB	vecherinka Stiljag	BB1	N	30291	4 CB M10 84	Bot, asc.	38
		BB2	N	30295	4 CB M10 84
		BB3	N	30314	4 CB M10 84
		BB4	N	30292	4 CB M10 84
		BB5	N	30285	4 CB M10 84
		BB6	N	30312	4 CB M10 84
		BB7	N	30302	4 CB M10 84

When it comes to keyword descriptions in the second column, they may be in German, Russian, English, or, in the case of BB, a transcription of Russian – vecherinka Stiljag = вечеринка стиляг, the party of the stilyagi, also called Teddy boys. I could have used “Good Evening Gustav” as a key term for BB, since this was title of the polyptych Kozlov created with BA, BB, and BC. However, “Vecherinka stilyag” was the name of an article Igor Khadikov and I published in 2001, and it remained a keyword for myself.

Yet most keywords are in German, since German is my mother tongue, and I live in Germany. Thus German is my natural choice, while English, Russian and some other languages are second languages to me, limiting my verbal skills. More exactly, I started with keywords in German, but later decided to continue in English to make my research accessible to international contributors; besides, it is for the same reason that I write in English. Basically, the index still very much displays how it was created and adapted to my personal needs and preferences, so that it is comfortable for my own work, although I hope that others may be able to work with it with the same ease.

Extending the tables with a description of single frames is a desideratum. It would offer the possibility of adding references to my online articles, where many of those pictures appear with detailed captions. Some examples are the BH and BI films referring to the Pop Mekhanika concert and New Artists exhibition “Happy New Year” at the Rock Club more>>, Leningrad, 1985, or the BS and BT films, documenting the New Artists exhibition at Timur Novikov’s place “ASSA” in 1984 more>>.

Of course, the same work would have to be carried out for Book 2 which only has a rudimentary index so far.

Considering that there are about 6000 pictures in Kozlov’s photo archive from the 1980s, this looks like a real challenge. From the point of view of a historical database, some pictures are certainly more important than others, but we are dealing with an archive reflecting an artist’s practise. From that point of view, all pictures are important, because only if we know them all, we understand Kozlov’s concept of selecting specific pictures – and not other ones – to continue working with them.

Another argument against preselecting what is important and what is unimportant is that we never know the significance of certain details before they become apparent in the course of a research. In the previous chapter, I discussed picture MI14, displaying art postcards and art magazine pages on one of the walls of Kozlov’s flat. It would be wrong to argue that the pictures on the wall are just an accidental part of the image: Kozlov shot a portrait of his friend Viktor, and as a rule, when shooting a portrait, he carefully selected the background. The picture gives us some interesting information about his knowledge of international art and his favourite artists, but also about the accessibly of such material in the Soviet Union’s closed society at a certain moment in time.

The question of background information becoming relevant also concerns the dating of events. Because Kozlov used his pictures for artworks, a picture already dated might appear somewhere else, for instance, in one of Kozlov’s collages shown in an exhibition. This is how I was able to limit the earliest date of “The Ballet of the Three Inseparable Ones”, a New Artists performance with an exhibition of collages including Kozlov’s collage-triptych. The collage has a picture from late 1984, and therefore, the performance cannot have taken place earlier. (See my introduction to the article from 2018 The New Artists and the New Theatre. Exhibition of Collages, 1985 more>>.)

In the synopsis of this article I wrote “Yet for Kozlov, mastering the technical aspects of photography was not an aim in itself: to him, it was important to achieve image sharpness – the easier, the better.” I may now add that for me, being precise when establishing facts isn’t an aim in itself – although, admittedly, Germans are said to have a penchant for considering details and setting up tables and charts.

I would simply say that when it comes to drawing conclusions from your findings – to some kind of value judgement – it is reassuring to know that you are working with findings that are reliable: where, when, who, what. Because we never exactly know why and what for, conclusions are interpretations containing a speculative element, so that there is no guarantee that conclusions are correct when some facts are established in the correct way. But when dates, locations and the presence of people and objects are determined incorrectly, the conclusions are wrong by default.

Just how much attention should be given to establishing facts? The answer is simple: as much as the resources allow for. Imagine a team of highly motivated people bringing the index tables of Kozlov’s photo archive to perfection – with scrupulous efficiency, correcting my errors and developing some new brilliant ideas to make all data available for researchers.

I would then be able to concentrate on what I like best: reflecting on philosophical questions concerning the nature of images.