Markov-Grinberg photograph of a policeman directing traffic in a Moscow intersection at night
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 23.380 inches (59.385 cm) | Width: 19.880 inches (50.495 cm)
Creator(s)
- Mark Markov-Grinberg (Artist)
- Mark Markov-Grinberg (Subject)
Biographical History
Mark Borisovich Markov-Grinberg was born on November 27, 1907, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. He learned photography at secondary school. In 1925, he took his first job as a photographer for the Sovetsky Yug (Soviet South) newspaper and worked as a freelance correspondent for Ogonyok magazine. In 1926, Markov-Grinberg moved to Moscow and worked for various trade union newspapers and the magazine, Krasnoarmeyskaya Smena (Transformation). In 1930, he accepted an offer to work for the Fotokhronika TASS (Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union). He traveled around the country photographing the official Soviet Union: major construction projects, collective farms, and happy workers engaged in building Soviet Society, as well as prominent Russian and foreign personalities. His photographs appeared in major Soviet publications, including USSR in Construction, a magazine that documented Stalin’s Five-Year Plans to industrialize the Soviet Union. In 1934, TASS commissioned Markov-Grinberg to create a photo essay detailing a day in the life of Ukrainian miner, Nikita Izotov. He created an iconic portrait of Izotov as a Socialist worker hero. The Izotov photo essay launched Markov-Grinberg's career as a Stalin-era photographer and he became one of the most important photographers of his generation. His work was part of the socialist realist movement in photography which pictured life as it should be in idealized images made to look like objective recordings of things as they were. During the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940), Markov-Grinberg worked for TASS as a war correspondent and documented the fighting on the Karelian Isthmus. In September 1941, he was drafted into the Red Army, and continued to take photographs. He became the army correspondent for the military publication, Slovo Boitsa (Soldier’s World), in July 1943. He created well-known images of the Battle of Kursk and the crematorium at Stutthof concentration camp, when it was liberated on May 9, 1945, by the Soviet Army. Markov-Grinberg lost his job with TASS in 1948 as a result of the anti-Semitic climate of late Stalinism. After his demobilization in 1953, he worked as a photographer for the Red Army Illustrated Gazette and, later, for the photography publishing office of the Soviet Union Agricultural Exhibition, a theme park about the People’s Economy. From 1957–1973, Markov-Grinberg worked for the Club and Art Hobby magazine. He took part in photography exhibitions in the USSR and abroad. An honorary member of the Russian Union of Art Photographers, Markov-Grinberg died in 2006 at the age of 99.
Archival History
The photographic print was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Dr. Stephen Nicholas.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Stephen Nicholas
Scope and Content
Photographic print of a nighttime traffic scene created in 1936 by Mark Markov-Grinberg, a Soviet Jewish photographer and World War II correspondent. Markov-Grinberg was a major Social Realist photographer during the Stalinist era of the 1930s-1940s. He worked for major newspapers and journals, including TASS. He was a war correspondent during the Soviet-Finnish War from 1939-1940 and, in 1941, was drafted to fight in World War II. While a soldier, he continued his work as a photographer and army correspondent. After the war, he returned to his job at TASS.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Black and white ferrotyped gelatin silver print, portrait orientation, depicting in the foreground, slightly left of center, a Moscow police officer seen from the back, wearing a dark uniform and white helmet, standing on an illuminated pedestal in the section of a large urban traffic intersection at night, surrounded by dirt and snow. His left, white gloved hand is raised towards oncoming cars and buses. The middle ground is filled by the dark, paved, intersecting streets, with a manhole cover right of center. In the background, 3 cars and a streetcar are stopped; pedestrians walk along the winding street with tall, bright street lights and large, multi-story buildings. Two bright streaks of light near the print’s right edge are the result of a long shot exposure time. The car, street, and pedestal lights are bright but hazy in contrast to the dark car shapes and the policeman’s uniform. The photographer took the picture from above and behind the policeman. The artist’s signature, year, title, and a number are inscribed on the reverse.
back, center, Russian script, pencil : 1936 [Symbol] back, top left corner, pencil : 14
People
- Markov-Grinberg, Mark B., 1907-2006.
Subjects
- Jewish photographers--Soviet Union.
- Soviet Union--Pictorial works.
- Photojournalism--Soviet Union.
- Photographers--SovietUnion.
- Moscow (Russia)--Pictorial works.
- Photography, artistic.
Genre
- Object
- Photographs