Markov-Grinberg photograph of a smiling young man and woman rowing a boat
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 23.500 inches (59.69 cm) | Width: 20.000 inches (50.8 cm)
Creator(s)
- Mark Markov-Grinberg (Subject)
- Mark Markov-Grinberg (Artist)
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 photograph was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005 by Dr. Mark Reichman.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Mark Reichman
Scope and Content
Photograph of a young couple in a rowboat by Mark Markov-Grinberg. 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
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Black and white gelatin silver photographic print depicting a happy adolescent boy and girl rowing a boat across a river. The boat dominates the foreground and is flat to the picture plane. The inhabitants are leaning back, away from the viewer, as they row. The girl has tousled chin length hair and is wearing a dark skirt and white blouse; the boy has short, dark hair and is shirtless. In the background, on a grass covered riverbank, a stone wall with a circular tower encloses 2 onion domed structures. Treetops are visible above the wall and clouds fill the sky. The photographer shot this scene from inside the boat, directing the viewer’s focus on the boat and its occupants. This technique puts the viewer in the same proximity to the subjects as the photographer. Inscribed on the reverse are the artist’s signature, the year, and the title.
back, center, Russian script, pencil : 1932 [Symbol] back, top left corner, pencil : 6 35 back, top right corner, pencil : MMG-05
People
- Jewish photographers--Soviet Union.
Subjects
- Soviet Union--Armed Forces--Pictorial works.
- World War, 1939-1945--Soviet Union--Pictorial works.
- World War, 1939-1945--War correspondents--Soviet Union.
- Photojournalism--Soviet Union.
- War photographers--Soviet Union--Biography.
- Markov-Grinberg, Mark B., 1907-2006.
- Photography, artistic.
- Soldiers--Soviet Union--Pictorial works.
Genre
- Object
- Photographs