Photography and non-fiction pre-revolutionary cinema

The purpose of this work is to identify the essence of cinema in the process of its formation in the pre–revolutionary period of time in comparison with its predecessor - photography. The author examines in detail the main properties of photography and the main properties of cinema, which do not coincide with each other, as well as their functioning in pre-revolutionary Russian society. The use of photography in mass illustrated magazines of that time is analyzed. Attention is paid to the formation of the properties of cinema at an early stage, when the audience of the first illusions was still mastering the perception of a new spectacle, which at the same time led to mastering the ability to read the language of screen reality. It is emphasized that mass cinema, in fact, used and developed the techniques of mass illustrated magazines. The special properties of cinematography related to the qualities of photogeny are also considered. The available documents on the functioning of the first cinemas are being studied. The issue of the emergence of the alienation effect in application to pre-revolutionary cinema, which leads to the mythologization of screen images, is discussed. The questions posed are studied on the basis of the art historical research method using the historical analysis of the available facts. What is new in this work is that the studied properties of photography and cinematography at an early stage allow us to develop the results obtained on the process of using archival photo and film documents in the modern cinematographic process. On the basis of the conducted research, it was found that cinematography, in comparison with photography, has the property of serving to identify the lost historical reality with giving the on-screen reality the qualities of myth, since there are no reliable verification techniques for visual paintings on the cinema screen. Photography reproduces mirrored pictures of existence with a demonstration of the smallest details and details, but cinema overshadows it due to its inherent photogeny, which does not have adequate verbal descriptions. Cinematic photogeny helps to reproduce the breath of life itself on the screen. In the course of the work, the empirical properties of photography and cinematography were studied with the disclosure of certain important historical circumstances that help to better understand their functioning in society.The results obtained contribute to a better understanding and decoding of pre-revolutionary film documents.