Soviet photographer Max Alpert

Famous photo of WWII by Soviet photographer Max Alpert ‘Combat’, July 1942

Max Vladimirovich Alpert (18 March 1899 Simferopol, Russian Empire – November 30, 1980, Moscow) – Soviet photographer and photo reporter. One of the founders of the Soviet serial photography. Honored Worker of Culture of the RSFSR (1966). Together with his brother, Mikhail Alperin, he studied photography in Odessa (1914). After the Civil War, he worked as a photojournalist in the “Workers Newspaper” in Moscow. In 1920s he became a member of the association of photo reporters at the Moscow printing house. In the 1930s, he worked in the illustrated magazine “USSR in Construction”, prepared about 50 photo-essays. The most important works of this period are made on the construction of the plant in Magnitogorsk (MMK), the Turksib, the Great Fergana Canal. He captured the fascinating history page of human labor, developed a monumental image of our era.

Building Turksib, 1929. Soviet photographer Max Alpert

Simultaneously Alpert worked in the newspaper “Pravda”, where they filmed portraits of almost all the major Soviet and many foreign politicians, military, writers and chess players.

People building the Great Fergana channel, Uzbekistan 1939

During the Great Patriotic War, as a correspondent of TASS Photochronicles and Soviet Information Bureau, Alpert worked both in the rear and at the frontlines, in a combat situation. Max Alpert is the author of “Combat”, which became one of the symbols of the war. At the end of the war he went to Prague and Berlin, shot the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945 in Moscow.

In the postwar years, he has worked in various publications, was a leading photographer for the press agency “Novosti”. Many of made by Max Alpert works are in the collection of negatives of the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia.

Harvey Lavan ‘Van’ Cliburn, Jr. American pianist. Soviet photographer Max Alpert

World famous name Cliburn gained after a sensational victory at the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958. The young pianist won the sympathy of the jury members and the public. This was even more surprising, as the action took place in the midst of the Cold War. On his return to the USA for Cliburn was arranged lush enthusiastic reception. Van Cliburn visited the USSR with concerts several times. On his 70-year anniversary in 2004, the musician has visited Moscow with tours. In September 2009, he visited Moscow as part of the I International festival “Glory to Maestro!», dedicated to the musician and teacher Mstislav Rostropovich, the maestro gave a series of master classes. In June 2011, Cliburn was chairman of the jury of the contest of pianists at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.