What you need to know
The Photographer's Gallery, London is showing a new collection of Russian images in colour. Primrose: Early Colour Photography in Russia records the use and development of colour in Russian photography from the 1860s to the 1970s.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What the critics like
"This marvellous exhibition presents more than 140 images marking the blossoming story of Russian photography," says Sue Steward in the Evening Standard.
It's a magnificent collection from the "perfect propaganda" of Aleksander Rodchenko's constructivist photo-collages to the wonderful street photography of the brilliantly changeable Dmitri Baltermants.
"Through exquisite examples" this show presents "an illuminating image of Russia", says Freire Barnes in Time Out. There are uncannily intimate portraits, eyecatching images of Tartar women, and a hypnotic photo of Tolstoy in impressionistic hues.
Beyond photography's role in propaganda, this show "tells a much wider story of formal experimentation developing in tandem with social change", says Jackie Wullschlager in the Financial Times. It concludes with the always individualist Boris Mikhailov whose energetic, empathetic vision of post-Soviet struggles concludes this intriguing show.
What they don't like
Some of the Soviet-era photography masks the devastation and starvation of a nation behind images "stage-managed to present state-sanctioned myths about the ‘happiest people in the happiest country on earth'", says Freire Barnes in Time Out. It's these images of plump fruit that leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
-
Crossword: August 27, 2025The Week's daily crossword
-
August 27 editorial cartoonsCartoons Wednesday’s political cartoons include a KKK rebrand, Donald Trump vs. Gavin Newsom, and Ghislaine Maxwell as the new Celebrity Apprentice
-
The mission to demine UkraineThe Explainer An estimated quarter of the nation – an area the size of England – is contaminated with landmines and unexploded shells from the war
-
Friendship: 'bromance' comedy starring Paul Rudd and Tim RobinsonThe Week Recommends 'Lampooning and embracing' middle-aged male loneliness, this film is 'enjoyable and funny'
-
The Count of Monte Cristo review: 'indecently spectacular' adaptationThe Week Recommends Dumas's classic 19th-century novel is once again given new life in this 'fast-moving' film
-
Death of England: Closing Time review – 'bold, brash reflection on racism'The Week Recommends The final part of this trilogy deftly explores rising political tensions across the country
-
Sing Sing review: prison drama bursts with 'charm, energy and optimism'The Week Recommends Colman Domingo plays a real-life prisoner in a performance likely to be an Oscars shoo-in
-
Kaos review: comic retelling of Greek mythology starring Jeff GoldblumThe Week Recommends The new series captures audiences as it 'never takes itself too seriously'
-
Blink Twice review: a 'stylish and savage' black comedy thrillerThe Week Recommends Channing Tatum and Naomi Ackie stun in this film on the hedonistic rich directed by Zoë Kravitz
-
Shifters review: 'beautiful' new romantic comedy offers 'bittersweet tenderness'The Week Recommends The 'inventive, emotionally astute writing' leaves audiences gripped throughout
-
How to do F1: British Grand Prix 2025The Week Recommends One of the biggest events of the motorsports calendar is back and better than ever
