of cotton crops in the Fergana Valley in present-
day Uzbekistan and contributed a series of photos
of the hydroelectric plant on the Dnepr River.
In 1931, along with Arkady Shaikhet and Salo-
mon Tulesa, Alpert worked on the picture story
Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of the Filippov
Family. The photo-essay, published as a cover
story in the German weeklyArbeiter Illustrierte
Zeitungto wide praise in Europe and the United
States, covered the life of a metal worker in Mos-
cow’s Red Proletarian factory. The influential
work was critical in establishing the photo essay
as a significant photographic genre and was among
the most significant photography projects of its
time, touring Vienna, Berlin, and Prague as an
exhibition in 1931. The project was organized by
editor Lazar Mezhericher as a manifestation of his
views as expressed in his article ‘‘Serial Photogra-
phy as the Highest Stage of Photographic Propa-
ganda.’’ The three photographers spent four days
with the Filippov family, producing around 80 pic-
tures of Nikolai Filippov and his wife and children;
of these, 52 were used in the photo essay.
The images depict specific events in the life of
what is claimed to be a typical family, each shot
presenting an intelligible narrative which adds to
the whole. The series begins with portrayals of the
Moscow neighborhood in which the Filippovs live.
Contrast is made between the Filippov’s previous
wooden house and their new and comfortable
apartment building by including a miniature shot
of their former dwelling. The meaning of such jux-
tapositions is supported with explanatory texts to
show the greatly improved living conditions of
working families in the new Soviet society.
Following the presentation of the living environ-
ment the photographers present a complete portrait
of the family members, each identified by name, as
they enjoy a morning tea inside their furnished
apartment. This introduction prepares viewers to
identify family members as they go about their day
on the streetcar, in the factory where the father and
son work, in the stores where the mother shops,
and in the store where the daughter works. Close-
ups of joyful and happy family members portrayed
the security Soviet workers felt while photos of the
factory and commune showed that such security is
only possible through the work of the community.
A year later the essay was analyzed thoroughly
inProletarskoye Fotoin an article that identified
the photo essay as a new art form, similar to film.
The enormous success of the Filippov essay made
photo stories mandatory. Prominent photo stories
that followed included Alexandr Rodchenko’s
White Sea Canal essay in 1933 and Mark Mar-
kov-Grinberg’s sequence on the coalminer Nikita
Izotov in 1934. The essay form as put forth by
Alpert and his colleagues had a powerful impact
on photography internationally, providing inspira-
tion forLifemagazine’s founding in 1936. It also
proved influential on the works produced by the
Farm Security Administration in the United States.
Alpert, along with Arkady Shaikhet, led the Union
of Russian Proletarian Photographers (ROPF),
which formed in the early 1930s. The photojournal-
ists of ROPF repudiated the experimental manipula-
tion of the October group, the avant-garde agitprop
artists as exemplified by Rodchenko. In opposition to
the startling angles and crops deployed by these
photographers, now commonly called the Construc-
tivists, the realists of ROPF urged straightforward
reportage. ROPF rejected notions of art for art’s
sake and argued that photography pursue a purpose.
Content rather than style should be the photogra-
pher’s primary consideration.
Along with Shaikhet, Alpert offered some of
the earliest denunciations of the nonrepresentational
works and theories of the October Association photo-
graphers, including Rodchenko, Boris Ignatovich,
and Elizar Langman. This position eventually gar-
nered official support. In 1931, the Central Committee
of the Proletarian Cinematographers and Photogra-
phers sanctioned the photographic approach pre-
sented in Twenty Four Hours in the Life of the
Filippov Familyas the appropriate model for the pro-
letarianization of Soviet photography.
Alpert’s work was displayed at the Exhibition of
Works by the Masters of Soviet Photo Art in 1935,
the last exhibition to show the vitality and diversity
of Soviet photography prior to the institutions of
socialist realism. Alpert also exhibited in the First
All-Union Exhibition of Photo Art at the State
Pushkin Museum in Moscow in 1937. This exhibit
signified the closing chapter in post-revolution
Soviet innovative photography. At the same time
Alpert’s images were produced not for galleries or
museums but for a mass audience.
During World War II Alpert reported for TASS
news agency. As with other Soviet photojournalists
of The Great Patriotic War (World War II), few of
Alpert’s wartime photos were ever shown in gal-
leries. Following the war Alpert worked for the
Soviet Information Office and the Novosti Press
Agency. He died in 1980.
JEFFREYShantzALPERT, MAX