Husband
and wife Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova began collaborating on book
design projects in 1923. Applying their Constructivist backgrounds to
utilitarian arts, they synthesized literature, graphic design, and photography
in books that could be appreciated by an increasingly literate Soviet public.
Their first major commission to experiment with photographs was for
illustrations for Sergei Tretyakov’s book of children’s poems, Samozveri [Self-Made-Animals or Auto-Animals].
Exploring different viewpoints, lighting possibilities, and exposure
techniques, Rodchenko shot cardboard human and animal figures, likely made by
Stepanova. Combining flat planes and cylindrical volumes, the photographic
illustrations for Samozveri
transformed the typically two-dimensional art of illustration into a more
convincing three dimensions.

Although
the book was not published at the time, these playful yet eerie images gained
recognition in other platforms. In 1927 some of the photographs were published
in the first issues of two state-sanctioned journals, Novyi Lef (New Left,
which Rodchenko designed) and Sovetskoe
Kino (Soviet Cinema, which
Stepanova helped design). Rodchenko selected several of these illustrations to
display in the 1929 Film und Foto
exhibition in Stuttgart, a show and catalogue that influenced a generation of
modernists.