Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the impact of photography on the production of icons in the twentieth century. Using the case of the Archangelist movement in Moldova, I illustrate how their use of photo-icons pushed beyond the accepted boundaries of the use of icons in the establishment of a saintly identity.

Paper long abstract:

The Orthodox tradition of icon painting, whilst claiming an unchanging pedigree, has nevertheless evolved over centuries to incorporate new pictorial formats, new materials and visual techniques of communication. These changes in the way that saints are depicted have had quite profound implications for the relationship between representation and saintly identity in Orthodox Christian belief. This paper explores the impact of photography on the production and power of icons in the twentieth century. Using the case of the Archangelist movement in Moldova, I illustrate how photo-icons produced by the leaders and members of this religious movement pushed beyond the established boundaries of the use of icons in the establishment of a saintly identity, breaking canonical rules on the representation of saints. Through the application of photographic technologies and techniques of intervention, Archangelists iconographers maintained the formal and aesthetic characteristics of icons whilst strengthening the indexical, physical relationship between living persons and their iconic representations. I argue therefore that photography allowed for the production of a new type of image that could effectively express the ontological complexity of a new type of living saint in the persons of the Archangelic leaders of the movement.