Dmitri Baltermants 1912-1990

Of the numerous stars that shone in the bright constellation of Soviet Photography the star of Dmitri Baltermants was one of the brightest. It was especially conspicous since it was shining in the very center of that constellation. As the principal photographer and photo editior of OGONYOK magazine, Baltermants achieved what words could not. Over a span of five decades, he captured on film the life, the times and the spirit of the Soviet people and the nation they built.

This portfolio is limited to twenty-five signed and numbered copies. Each image in the portfolio has been marked with the photographer's original stamp and signed by Tatiana Baltermants on her father's behalf. No further photographic prints will be made from these negatives except for purposes of copyright and exhibition, and none of these prints will be offered for sale.

During 1989 and 1990, guidelines for the production of this portfolio were agreed upon in Moscow; Agfa Portriga Rapid paper was selected by the photographer. The portfolio was designed by Teresa Gabriel Harbaugh and hand letterpress printed by Raymond Tomasso, Denver, Colorado. Portfolio cases were made by Portfoliobox, Inc. Providence, Rhode Island.

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Special recognition is extended Michael Brainerd, Dmitry Gershengorin, Dutch Walla, Hal Gould and R. Emmett Jordan, without whose support, advise, expertise and enthusiasm this project could not have been completed.

This Portfolio is number 15 in an edition of twenty-five.

Dmitri Baltermants was a prominent Soviet-era photojournalist. He was born May 13, 1912, in Warsaw, Poland. His father served in the Imperial Russian Army and was killed in the First World War.

Baltermants graduated from the Moscow State University to become a math teacher, but fell in love with photography and began a career in the field of photojournalism. He was an official Kremlin photographer, worked for the daily Izvestia and was picture editor of the popular magazine Ogonyok.

During World War II, Baltermants covered the battle of Stalingrad, and the battles on of the Red Army in Ukraine, Poland, and in Germany, ultimately reaching Berlin in 1945. He was twice wounded.

Just like his fellow photographers covering the Red Army during the war, Baltermants images were always censored by Soviet authorities in order to select only the ones that reflected on the positive sides of service in order to help boost morale. Some of his most captivating photos were supressed, and became public much later, in the 1960's.

One of the more famous images, called "Grief" depicts a 1942 Nazi massacre in the Crimean village of Kerch. It shows the grief of village women as they search for the bodies of their loved ones. A powerful oversaturated sky above, burnt in during the printing of the photo, makes the image even more dramatic.

Baltermants died in 1990.

Porfolio Case
Case, black silk with red hand letterpress type in English and Cyrillic

Stamp of Authenticity
Each image in the portfolio has been marked with the photographer's original stamp and signed by Tatiana Baltermants on her father's behalf.

"Grief" 1942
Photograph
Date: 1942
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 1 of Portfolio.

While the Germans advanced deep into the Soviet Union, the horrors of war increased.
Here, a woman grieves over a loved one, lost in the Kerch Peninsula. By supereimposing the dark, heavy cloud at the top of the photo, Baltermants enhanced the somberness of the image. This photograph remained unpublished until 1965, when it appeard in Ogonyok magazine.

"War is, above all, grief. War is not for photography. If, however, heaven forbid, I had to photograph war again, I would do it quite differently. I agonize now at the thought of all the things that I did not photograph."
Dmitri Baltermants

"Calvary, Red Square, Nov. 7, 1941"
Photograph
Date: 1941
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 2 of Portfolio

"Attack" 1941
Photograph
Date: 1941
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 3 of Portfolio.

By the end of November 1941 the Germans had already suffered 250,000 casualties in Russia. In December the Russians began their counterattack. When first published, Baltermant's photo of charging soldiers was criticized as it depicted "half-a-man," and was thus inconsistent with socialist realism. It has since become one of the most enduring war photos ever taken.

"Behind Enemy Lines" 1941
Photograph
date: 1941
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 4 of Portfolio.

By December 7, 1941, the temperature around Moscow had dropped to minus 20 degrees F. Like Napoleon before them, the Germans soon discovered that the bitter Soviet winters, coupled with the difficulty of maintaining their supply lines, slowed their advance into the country. This photograph shows a cavalry detachment in the rear of the German advance.

"Announcement Of Stalin's Death" 1953
Photograph
Date: 1953
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 5 of Portfolio

The Announcement of Stalin's Death (The Dynamo Factory). March 6, 1953-One day after Stalin had died of a cerebral hemorrhage, the announcement of his death was made across the Soviet Union. This photo a composite of three negatives, captures the reaction in a Moscow factory.

"Tchaikovsky" 1945
Photograph
Date: 1945
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 6 of Portfolio.

In a moment of calm toward the end of a war that claimed over twenty-seven million lives, a group of Soviet troops is shown listening to music played on a piano, the only survivor in a ruined house. Baltermants was able to capture an image of beauty in the midst of the death and destruction of war.

"On Their Way To The Front" Nov. 7, 1941"
Photograph
Date: 1941
Size 16" x 20"
Part 7 of Portfolio.

Mounted troops enter Red Square for ceremonies commemorating the 24th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The celebration was held despite the danger of a German attack on Moscow. The troops went directly from Red Square to the front, some twenty kilometers away.

"Krushchev's Last Time On The Tribune" 1964
Photograph
Date: 1964
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 8 of Portfolio.

Krushchev's Last Time on the Lenin Mausoleum, May 1, 1964

"On The Road Of War" 1941
Photograph
Date: 1941
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 9 of Portfolio.

While the Germans had many casualties, the Soviets suffered even greater losses. Like many photos taken during the war, this one was censored, as the Soviet government did not want the public to see the great extent of destruction and death.

"Queue For Lenin's Tomb" 1954
Photograph
Date: 1954
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 10 of Portfolio.

One of Baltermant's great socialist-realist photographs, a reverent line of devoted Soviets winds snakelike toward Lenin's tomb on a bitter winter afternoon.

"Red Square" Nov. 7, 1945
Photograph
Date: 1945
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 11 of Portfolio

"Krushchev" 1955
Photograph
Date: 1955
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 12 of Portfolio.

Krushchev shown at his dacha shortly after consolidating his power, the ebullient and dynamic Krushchev was a stark contrast to the stolid, dangerous Stalin. His impatience to overtake the US led to ill-considered schemes that ultimately caused his downfall.

"Tank Attack" 1943
Photograph
Date: 1943
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 13 of Portfolio.

On July 4, 1943, almost 6,000 German and Russian tanks clashed near Kursk for the greatest tank battle in history. The Russians claimed victory in the last German offensive. The "backward" Soviets, and specifically their T-34 tanks, had defeated German technology.

"Building Communism" 1948
Photograph
Date: 1948
Size: 16" x 20"

Part 14 of Portfolio.
When Stalin took over as the Soviet leader in the 1920s, the nation was backward both agriculturally and industrially. Within three decades, at the cost of millions of lives, Stalin had mobilized the Soviet Union to become one of the world's greatest economic and industrial powers. The Communist experiment was proving to be a success.

"Decoration And Demonstration" 1957
Photograph
Date: 1957
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 15 of Portfolio

"Crossing The Oder River" 1945
Photograph
Date: 1945
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 16 of Portfolio.

By late 1944 the Red Army had repelled the Germans from Soviet soil. The Soviets took the offensive, driving the Germans across Poland in a final push toward Berlin and German surrender, a goal they attained within six months. The crossing of the Oder, the major river on the way to Berlin, was as symbolic as the American photo of U.S. soldiers planting the flag on Iwo Jima.

"The Nation's Time Piece" 1967
Photograph
Date: 1967
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 17 of Portfolio

"Before Sputnik" 1954
Photograph
Date: 1954
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 18 of Portfolio.

Before Sputnik (Launching a Stratosphere Balloon), 1954

"Test Pilot" 1962
Photograph
Date: 1962
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 19 of Portfolio.

Cosmonaut.

"Without Looking Back" 1970
Photograph
Date: 1970
Size: 16" x 20"
Part 20 of Portfolio.

An unspectacular party member prior to his assumption of power in late 1964, Brezhnev followed Stalin's model, surrounding himself with cronies. He enhanced his prestige with medals and honors, such as the Order of Victory in 1978, the highest military award in the Soviet Union. He became the first head of the Communist Party to serve also as Chairman of the Presidium.

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information about this artist.