The White Space Gallery is one of the places Londongrad’s Russians go to get their culture fix. It often features the work of lesser known Russian photographers.

The photographers here aren’t known at all. For its current event, ‘Being Beauteous’, the curator assembled rare and unusual photos from Soviet Russia, all around the theme of the beauty contest.

As the Guardian’s man notes, the girls are viewed much more like gymnasts than beauty queens, and pose awkwardly - often with their trophies. The emphasis on athleticism rather than seduction may explain the presence of the hula hoop, something not seen around Western women’s waists since the Fifties.

If you prefer your Russian dolls more abstract, then there’s Stephen Gill’s conceptual series, Russian Women Smokers. In these pictures, unseen Russian beauties are referenced by a spectrum of red and pink lipstick traces on discarded cigarette butts from the streets of St Petersburg.

‘Being Beauteous’ is at the White Space Gallery until June 2nd.