Table of contents:
- Arthur Bondar is 33 years old. Ukrainian photographer. Born in Krivoy Rog, lives in Moscow. Studied documentary photography and human rights at NYU Tisch School of the Arts in New York. Winner of the United States Documentary Photography Foundation, Magnum Foundation Human Rights Fellowship and National Geographic Grant. Now he participates in the educational program of the VII Photo photo agency and continues to work on personal and group projects in Ukraine, Russia and other countries. Co-founder of Blueframejournal and member of the international photography team Raw View Magazine
- Valery Faminsky. Soviet photo artist. Was born in 1914 in Moscow. He took up photography in 1928. From 1932 he worked as a photographic assistant, after that - as the head of a photographic laboratory. From 1943 he served as a front-line photojournalist for the Red Army, visited seven fronts of the Second World War. Participated in the liberation of Sevastopol and the entry of Soviet troops into Berlin. After the war, he got a job as a photographer in the Moscow branch of the Art Fund of the RSFSR. In 1979, the Union of Artists of the USSR organized a personal exhibition of Faminsky's works entitled "50 years with a camera on military and peaceful roads."
Video: Frontline photographs found after 70 years of oblivion
2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55
Photographer Arthur Bondar saw an advertisement that the family of an unknown Soviet photographer from the Second World War was selling his work. Having bought the archive and scanned the negatives, Bondar discovered rare front-line photographs of the war photographer Valery Faminsky, who shot everything - from the liberation of Sevastopol to the complete surrender of Nazi Germany.
On their own for dressing. Germany, Seelow Heights. April 1945
Blood transfusion at the first-aid post. Berlin. May 1945
Removal of the wounded on dogs from the battlefield. Germany, Seelow Heights. April 1945
Seeing off the fallen comrades. East Germany. April 1945
Unloading the wounded at the medical center on Friedrichstrasse. Berlin, April 30, 1945
Arthur Bondar is 33 years old. Ukrainian photographer. Born in Krivoy Rog, lives in Moscow. Studied documentary photography and human rights at NYU Tisch School of the Arts in New York. Winner of the United States Documentary Photography Foundation, Magnum Foundation Human Rights Fellowship and National Geographic Grant. Now he participates in the educational program of the VII Photo photo agency and continues to work on personal and group projects in Ukraine, Russia and other countries. Co-founder of Blueframejournal and member of the international photography team Raw View Magazine
When I saw this publication on Facebook, I immediately went to the Avito free classifieds site, where the announcement was posted. The ad said that the family of the Soviet photographer was selling his front-line negatives. I wrote to the salesperson and the next day we met to look at the negatives. The price of the archive was very high, especially for a freelance photographer, and I started haggling unsuccessfully. Thanks to the fact that I had money from the sale of my book "Shadows of the Star Wormwood", I was able to acquire this unique archive. I also learned the name of the photographer - his name was Valery Faminsky.
When the photographer Valery Faminsky died, his wife took care of the archive. And when his wife died, the heirs found this archive in the old apartment where the parents lived. None of them were interested in photography, and they decided to sell this archive. When I asked if any of the museums were interested in such unique shots, I was told that many museums would like to receive this archive, but for free, since the state does not have the budget to purchase the archive. It just shocked me, it sounded outrageous to me. From the first glance at the negatives, I realized that I was looking at a unique material that I had not seen anywhere else until now. This is a mostly unknown piece of history for ordinary people, even for citizens of the former USSR. The photographs show that Faminsky was sincerely interested in the fate of people on both sides of the barricades.
Valery Faminsky. Soviet photo artist. Was born in 1914 in Moscow. He took up photography in 1928. From 1932 he worked as a photographic assistant, after that - as the head of a photographic laboratory. From 1943 he served as a front-line photojournalist for the Red Army, visited seven fronts of the Second World War. Participated in the liberation of Sevastopol and the entry of Soviet troops into Berlin. After the war, he got a job as a photographer in the Moscow branch of the Art Fund of the RSFSR. In 1979, the Union of Artists of the USSR organized a personal exhibition of Faminsky's works entitled "50 years with a camera on military and peaceful roads."
"A wound is a wound, and a deed is a deed." Berlin. May 1945
People are cleaning the streets of Berlin. May 1945
Berlin. May 1945
Berlin. May 1945
At the walls of the Reichstag. Berliners clearing the city streets. Berlin. May 1945
Germany, April-May, 1945
Germany, April-May, 1945
The next day after buying the archive, I flew to the shooting in Kaliningrad, and put the archive in the closet. When I got home two weeks later, I started scanning the negatives. The negatives were cut one frame at a time, each carefully wrapped in a piece of paper. They were all numbered and signed. The more I scanned, the more I immersed myself in the history of World War II. It was only then that I was able to fully appreciate this unique piece of our unknown history.
Berlin 1945
In 1941 it came back to haunt, in 1945 it responded. Berlin suburb, May 1945
Alerting the population about the surrender of the fascist army. Berlin, 8 May 1945
Germany, April-May 1945
Berlin 1945
Germany, April-May 1945
Germany, April-May 1945
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