Someone Else's Patriotism: Vladimir Putin Is a Teen Heartthrob
Youthful fans fly the flag, buy the t-shirts and worship the Russian president
Pop idols are a lucrative merchandising opportunity. Breakout musical acts and movie talent are screened onto t-shirts and thrown up on billboards.
Around the globe teens dump allowances or pester parents into parting with their hard-earned cash for celebrity product.
As for globally marketable pop sensations from Russia, there was the faux-lesbian duo t.A.T.u. with their titillating music vids and, well, that’s about it. At a stretch, you could argue that co-opted Pussy Riot messaging pressed onto “memorabilia” might satisfy the “globally marketable” definition but its runs counter to what Nadezhda and Maria intended.
Russia is hasn’t learnt that special pop recipe for global reach. Within its borders, however, homegrown teen heroes can still be capitalized on. One case in point is beyond awkward.
Vladimir Putin. Seen in the west as an egomaniacal hangover from the bad old days, the president remains popular within Russia.
The hyper-masculine, jet-flying, bare-chested horseman who defends Orthodox religion, conservative values, and who thumbs his nose at powerful nations around the world, Putin appeals to a loyal army of women as well as a a proud sub-sect of youth culture.
On assignment in Moscow, Bela Doka learned of the Putin Fan Club by chance. He’d been sent to shoot NASHI, a squeaky-clean national youth organization which reportedly had been founded in after revolutions in former Soviet states. When his assistant learned of city kids dressed in Putin t-shirts admiring the president, Doka convinced his editor to switch gears.
“I saw it as a very interesting, strangely banal, phenomena,” says Doka. “Something like a Bon Jovi fan club or something.”
The assistant hunted down club leader Igor and convinced him to find members who would be willing to pose for portraits. For two weeks, Doka went from house to house where Putin fanatics dressed up in their favorite gear and hung posters of the president on their walls.
The kids showed off books and magazines about their idol, extolling his virtues while the assistant recorded their adulation. Reverence for Putin — known as “VV” among his starry-eyed admirers — ranged from his stewardship of an improving economy to his role as family man, his international policies and his judo skills.
Members of the PFC were invited to decorate specifically for the shoots, violating strict documentarian standards but revealing a slightly fictionalized expression of a greater truth.
Doka focuses more on portraiture than photojournalism. When contacted by Vantage he had been in the Philippines for several months, staying in a small fishing village on Palawan Island, putting together a creative project.
“I built a makeshift studio in my neighbor’s yard and photograph the locals, as if it’s my own private film casting,” he says. “It’s real fun, ‘Studio Panindigan’.”
Although he had been sent to Russia to shoot NASHI — compared by critics to Hitler Youth — Doka approached the PFC from an apolitical angle. Kids will idolize their heroes, be it a new pop group or a seated president.
Youthful adoration usually relates more to mass media and cultural osmosis than a deeply-rooted, well reasoned analysis of the object of their affection.
“I’m absolutely not into politics, but I was very interested in this young generation,” says Doka. “I approached it as if it was a kind of home-fashion story, so I told them to feel free to use their Fan Club clothes and decorate their flats however they wanted.”
News agencies saw otherwise. The series is several years old and off the radar until Russia’s annexation of Crimea led to continued involvement in Ukraine. Publications began calling to use the photos for what he assumed were political hit-pieces.
Doka would like to return to Moscow and take new portraits of the PFC members he’d previously met, but he thinks that if he shoots a new series on his own terms he’ll never get funding. Other than that, the story is done so far as he’s concerned.
“Putin is always in the news, so the media can use the series to illustrate and sensationalize today’s political situation,” he says. “I’m not interested in that. I’ve had many, many requests but I told them NO. It’s not a current news story. I shot it in 2007.”
All images: Bela Doka.
