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 23 February - 4 May 2005 Dmitri Baltermants, whose nickname was "the Eye of the Nation", was born on 13 May 1912 in Warsaw, at the time part of the Russian Empire. For almost half a century, his images were almost the only photos ordinary Russians were ever shown. His numerous exhibitions and publications served the State, but they also brought a true visual heritage relating to daily life, to international activities, to the development of resources and ethnic diversity, in all the Republics of the Empire. Dmitri Baltermants was able to reconcile his artistic vision with the militant dimension of his work, and his photographs still near witness today to the great social and political dreams of this nation. He began his career at 14 years old as the assistant to leading photographers of the day, and in 1939, having studied mechanics and mathematics, he became a photographer at the Izvestija publishing house. He produced his first reportage in Western Ukraine, on the subject of Soviet troops. Following the publication of one of his photos, which was wrongly labelled, he was sent to a disciplinary batallion. Her was badly wounded and following a spell in hospital he returned to the front lines in Ukraine, where he stayed until the end of the war. Ogonyok, the first colour magazine, took him on as a photo-journalist after the war. The Communist Party rapidly understood the usefulness of a photographer for propaganda purposes. They asked Dmitri Baltermants to create scenarios to show what productive and happy workers they were. He travelled through all the republics of the Russian Empire, producing images to the glory of the USSR. In 1949, he was appointed official photographer of the Kremlin, and became close to Joseph Stalin. When Krushchev took over from Stalin after his death, he carried on as official photographer, and political change gave his career new impetus. He extended his activities beyond Soviet borders, visiting China, India, Vietnam and so on. In octobre 1964, after the fall of Krushchev, liberal reforms were cancelled by Brejnev, but thanks to the nomination of a new chief editor, the magazine continued to flourish. Dmitri Baltermants photographed these changes taking place throughout his country. At this time he produced reports on the booming Soviet economy and on the successes of Soviet athletes in the Olympic Games. In 1969, he had the opportunity to present his work abroad for the first time, in London. He saw that colour brought too much realism and harshness to his photos, and decided to reprint some images in black and white. In 1985, Perestroïka began and the whole world hailed the accession to power of Mikhail Gorbatchev. Dimitri Baltermants created new features in Ogonyok, such as a letters column and more in-depth reports on world news. Baltermants died in 1990, and his archive is now managed by his daughter Tatiana. It is a unique set of images that record a very important period in the history of the Soviet Union. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Moscow House of Photography, and with the support of the Government and the Cultural Committee of the City of Moscow. Curator: Olga Slibova, Director of the Moscow House of Photography.
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