Images from great photographers of the Soviet Union and modern Russia opened today at the new TopFoto Gallery
by Jess on Feb.04, 2010, under archive, event, exhibition, historical images, photo archive, photography
Worker Viktor Kalmykov arrives at the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Combine construction site, 1930. Magnitogorsk (Magnet mountain city) is a mining and industrial city by the Ural River in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, with one of the largest iron and steel works in the country. credit: Max Alpert ©RIA Novosti / TopFoto
The exhibition, curated by RIA Novosti, Russia’s leading press service, has already shown to great acclaim at London’s Guildhall and the Imperial War Museum North.
The show includes World Press Award winners, such as Vladimir Vyatkin, whose image of soldiers in Chechnya won the Gold Medal in 2002.
Grozny, Chechnya. August 1996 Photo by Igor Mikhalev
From the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, the exhibition then charts the tremendous changes Russia has undergone within the last 100 years, from the industrialisation of the 1930s, through WWII and the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and developments since.
A federal reconnaissance unit in the Bass River gorge, Chechnya, 1999. Gold medal, World Press Photo, 2002. credit: Vladimir Vyatkin ©RIA Novosti / TopFoto
Russia’s finest photographers are represented.
Max Alpert, for example, is one of the greatest photographers of the 20th Century. His image of Commander Alexei Yeremenko, urging on his men in 1942 shortly before his death, is justly famous. To capture this silent, devastating, shot Alpert was right up front. You can hear the bullets.
A Russian soldier raising the Victory banner on the roof. Berlin, Germany - 5 May 1945
These are simply great photographers working at the height of their skill.
Exhibition 04/02/10–31/03/10. Gifts/Print shop. Free entry 09.30-5pm Mon-Friday; 09.30-1pm Sat. T: 01732 863 939.
© 2010, The F Stops Here. All rights reserved. (Jessica D. Korman)
