"Readers should not take this handsome volume for an extended photo-essay because of its large trim size. Instead, it is two books in one: a detailed history of the Soviet Union, by the Von Laues, and a collection of photos by Soviet photographer Dmitri BALTERMANTS (1912-1990).
BALTERMANTS, who began his work in WWII, became an official Kremlin photographer and also a photo editor for the popular magazine Ogonyok.
Though the extensive text tends to dominate the photos, some of BALTERMANT's war images have today become icons of the titanic struggle on the eastern front between Nazis and Soviets.
Also of note here are closeups of various Soviet leaders, including several of Stalin.
Theodore H. Von Laue is professor emeritus of European history at Clark University; Angela Von Laue is his research assistant and editor; Tatiana Baltermants is the photographer's daughter." (text©: publishersweekly, source: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-55591-262-8)
"(.) The Robert CAPA of Soviet photography!" Cornell CAPA "A stunning visual history of the working-class people, the political leaders, and the critical events that shaped the Soviet Union in the twenthieth century, as portrayed by the powerful photographs of Dmitri BALTERMANTS, premier Soviet photograph for over five decades."
About the photographer, Dmitri BALTERMANTS (1912-1990):
Dmitri BALTERMANTS was born in Warsaw, Poland. His father served in the Imperial Russian Army and was killed in the First World War.
Baltermants graduated from the Moscow State University.
BALTERMATNS plans to become a math teacher in a Military Academy, but he fell in love with photography and began a career in the field of photojournalism in 1939.
He was an official Kremlin photographer, worked for the daily Izvestia and was picture editor of the popular magazine Ogonyok.
During World War II, BALTERMANTS covered the battle of Stalingrad, and the battles of the Red Army in Russia and Ukraine. Just like his fellow photographers covering the Red Army during the war, BALTERMANTS' images were always censored by Soviet authorities in order to select only the ones that reflected on the positive sides of service in order to help boost morale.
Some of his most captivating photos were suppressed, and became public much later, in the 1960s. His work gained attention in the West where it was distributed by the Sovfoto agency.
One of the more famous images, called 'Grief', depicts a 1942 Nazi massacre of Jews in the Crimean city of Kerch.It shows the grief of village women as they search for the bodies of their loved ones. A powerful oversaturated sky above, burnt in during the printing of the photo, makes the image even more dramatic. This Image was used on the cover of the Dir En Grey album, The Marrow of a Bone.
Baltermants died in 1990.
Exhibitions:
2004, Dmitri Baltermants. Images of The Soviet Union, Hatton Gallery, USA
2005, Dmitry Baltermants, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
2012, Retrospective, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
BALTERMANTS, who began his work in WWII, became an official Kremlin photographer and also a photo editor for the popular magazine Ogonyok.
Though the extensive text tends to dominate the photos, some of BALTERMANT's war images have today become icons of the titanic struggle on the eastern front between Nazis and Soviets.
Also of note here are closeups of various Soviet leaders, including several of Stalin.
Theodore H. Von Laue is professor emeritus of European history at Clark University; Angela Von Laue is his research assistant and editor; Tatiana Baltermants is the photographer's daughter." (text©: publishersweekly, source: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-55591-262-8)
"(.) The Robert CAPA of Soviet photography!" Cornell CAPA "A stunning visual history of the working-class people, the political leaders, and the critical events that shaped the Soviet Union in the twenthieth century, as portrayed by the powerful photographs of Dmitri BALTERMANTS, premier Soviet photograph for over five decades."
About the photographer, Dmitri BALTERMANTS (1912-1990):
Dmitri BALTERMANTS was born in Warsaw, Poland. His father served in the Imperial Russian Army and was killed in the First World War.
Baltermants graduated from the Moscow State University.
BALTERMATNS plans to become a math teacher in a Military Academy, but he fell in love with photography and began a career in the field of photojournalism in 1939.
He was an official Kremlin photographer, worked for the daily Izvestia and was picture editor of the popular magazine Ogonyok.
During World War II, BALTERMANTS covered the battle of Stalingrad, and the battles of the Red Army in Russia and Ukraine. Just like his fellow photographers covering the Red Army during the war, BALTERMANTS' images were always censored by Soviet authorities in order to select only the ones that reflected on the positive sides of service in order to help boost morale.
Some of his most captivating photos were suppressed, and became public much later, in the 1960s. His work gained attention in the West where it was distributed by the Sovfoto agency.
One of the more famous images, called 'Grief', depicts a 1942 Nazi massacre of Jews in the Crimean city of Kerch.It shows the grief of village women as they search for the bodies of their loved ones. A powerful oversaturated sky above, burnt in during the printing of the photo, makes the image even more dramatic. This Image was used on the cover of the Dir En Grey album, The Marrow of a Bone.
Baltermants died in 1990.
Exhibitions:
2004, Dmitri Baltermants. Images of The Soviet Union, Hatton Gallery, USA
2005, Dmitry Baltermants, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
2012, Retrospective, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
- Ed(s)/Author(s)
- Angela Von Laue
- Format
- Pb. (no dust jacket, as issiued), 23,5 x 27,5 x 2,5 cm., 280 pp., b/w ills., English