Category Archive: Photography

Kukryniksy. Portrait Photo by Lev Ivanov. Soviet artists Lenin Prize Laureates

Soviet artists Lenin Prize Laureates
Noteworthy, the Lenin Prizes weге adjudged оn every birthday of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ‘for works generally acknowledged as being best in literature, art, music, as well for the production of plays and acting in films and оn the stage‘. From the resolution by the Central Committee оf the Communist Party, and Соuncil оf Мinisters оf the USSR ‘Оn Lеnin Рrizes for the best works in sсiеnce, teсhnоlоgу, literature and аrt’. ‘Рrаvdа’. September 8, 1956.
This post features the most notable personalities in Soviet Art. In addition, the portraits of the awarded artists – work by Soviet photographer Lev Ivanov. These photographs appeared in the album prepared for the birthday centenary of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin by the Аvrora Art Publishers jointly with the Glаvроligгаfprоm Рrinting-hоusе # 5 attached to the Committee of the USSR Council оf Мinistеrs for Рrinting. And in the first photo – the trio of Kukryniksy – Mikhail Vasilievich Kupriyanov (b. 1903), Porfiry Nikitich Krylov (b. 1902), and Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sokolov (b. 1903). They received the highest award – the Lenin Рrize in 1965 for the series of political cartoons published in ‘Рravdа’ and ‘Кrокodil’.
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Moscow, Victory Parade. Soviet photographer Evgeny Khaldey on the shooting June 24, 1945

Legendary Soviet photographer Evgeny Khaldey, together with his Leica camera, passed all 1,418 days of the war from Murmansk to Berlin. Photos of Evgeny Ananievich Khaldey (23 March 1917 – 6 October 1997) have become a classic of military photo coverage. Well known to the whole world, they are often cited as illustrations in a huge number of textbooks and encyclopedias. First of all, it was the picture “The Banner over the Reichstag” created in May 1945, which became a true symbol of the Victory, as well as the famous photo “The First Day of the War”, taken in Moscow on June 22, 1941.
At the Nuremberg trial, one of the physical evidence was photographs of Khaldey. Participated in the liberation of Sevastopol, the storming of Novorossiysk, Kerch, the liberation of Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Austria, and Hungary. Member of the filming of the Potsdam Conference, the Paris Conference and the Nuremberg Trials. After the war, he created a gallery of images of soldiers in peace work.
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It’s not my dog business. 1965. Soviet photographer Vladimir Bogdanov (born September 4, 1937, Leningrad, USSR)

Soviet photographer Vladimir Bogdanov
The author of this picture is one of the forefathers of the so-called street photography. He shot a simple life: in the Moscow courtyard, on the embankments of Leningrad, in the Summer Garden, in Minsk, Vologda and other places. Recognition and fame came to him with a photograph “It’s not my dog business.” At the international competition “Inter Press Photo” in 1966 he with this dog became a prize-winner of all spectator sympathies.
Born in 1937 in Leningrad, Vladimir Bogdanov didn’t plan to become a photographer. In 1955, being a student of the textile institute, he came to the photo club of the Palace of Culture of the Leningrad City Council. And ten years later he was already a professional photographer, having started working as a photographer in the youth newspaper “Smena” (1965). Then followed Leningradskaya Pravda, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Sovetskaya Rossiya, Trud and, finally, The Literary Newspaper, where he worked for 23 years.
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Babusya (old lady), 1961. Soviet photographer Vladimir Rufinovich Lagranzh

Soviet photographer Vladimir Rufinovich Lagranzh – a hereditary photographer, a Muscovite, and a recognized classic of Soviet and Russian photography. At the age of 20 he became a correspondent of the photo chronicles of TASS, and two years later makes such a sincere photo (Babusya, above). He is one of those photojournalists who not only did the editorial task, but tried to reflect in his works the era and the life of people in it. That is why among the photographs of Vladimir Lagranzh, in addition to unique images of politicians, artists and other famous people, there are so many everyday themes. And above all, they glorified the talented photographer. Noteworthy, the master receives recognition at his first international exhibition in Budapest and receives the Gold Medal for the photo “Little Ballerinas”.
Lagranzh is a participant of various competitions, exhibitions of Soviet photo, and a holder of professional awards, medals, prizes and diplomas. In particular, the highest award of the professional guild of photographers and the Union of Journalists “Golden Eye of Russia”. Besides, he is the author of the textbook “Pigeons over the Kremlin”.
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Crossing. 1975. Humanus series. Soviet Latvian photographer Vilgelm Mikhailovsky

Soviet Latvian photographer Vilgelm Mikhailovsky (Vilhelms Mihailovskis) was Laureate of the State Prize of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (1989). Noteworthy, he was the first of Soviet photographers received the honorary title of an outstanding artist of the International Federation of Photographic Art (Excellence FIAP, 1979). Meanwhile, he has more than a hundred different international awards. His author’s collections are in the French Museum of Photography (Musee Francais de la Photographie), the Musee de L’Elysee in Lausanne and in other European collections.
Born October 2, 1942 in the city of Konstantinovka, Donetsk region, Mikhailovsky graduated from the Konstantinovka Technical Institute (1966). Then he moved to Latvia. He started photography in 1969, and began working as a photographer in the magazine “Māksla” (1976-1996), the newspaper “Literatūra un māksla” (1980-1982), and as an art editor in the Baltic Newspaper (1991-1995).
Mikhailovsky became known for his series “Portraits” (1985), “Invitation to the Execution” (1988), and “Non-stop Photography” (1996-2003). He is the author of many photo albums, including: “Revelation” (1982), “Tribute to Riga” (1992), “The Face of the Epoch” (1998) “Flight 2000” (2000) “Centuries Look at Us” (2002).
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Early morning. Red Square, 1988-1990. Moscow USSR. Photo by Soviet photographer Gennady Bodrov (May 17, 1957 – February 14, 1999). Image source kursk.com

The shot from the series “Black and white Russia” by Gennady Borisovich Bodrov (May 17, 1957 – February 14, 1999), made in 1988-1990, evaluated at 2-3 thousand pounds at Sotheby’s auction. Soviet photographer Gennady Bodrov was born in 1957 in the city of Soltsy of Novgorod region. In his childhood, aged ten, he injured his hand examining the found shell left from the Great Patriotic war (1941-1945). At school, in the early 70s he became interested in photography. Then his first cameras were “Kiev” and “Zenith”. He studied by correspondence at the national University of Arts in 1973 – 1976. In 1974, immediately after graduation, he began working with newspapers. He worked as the head of photo club, assistant cameraman, a photographer for the newspaper. In fact, Gennady Bodrov was a freelance photographer.
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Soviet photographer Mikhail Dashevsky. At the exhibition. 1980s, Moscow

Soviet photographer Mikhail Dashevsky is the author of series of photographs which he took during sad days of perestroika, and collapse of the great state – the USSR. A civil engineer by profession, doctor of technical sciences, Mikhail Aronovich Dashevsky can’t be called professional photographer in a strict sense of the term. Mikhail Aronovich Dashevsky was born in 1935 in Moscow. In 1953 entered the Moscow Engineering and Construction Institute, from which he graduated in 1958. It was a time of change: the death of Stalin and Beria’s execution, XX Party Congress with the revelations, the International youth festival – life was changing fast. After graduation he worked briefly at the construction of the Stalingrad and Bratsk hydroelectric power stations, and traveled around the country.
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