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YEVGENY KHALDEI
Ukranian
Yevgeny Khaldei was a photojournalist who is best
known for his photographs of World War II. His
photographs are humanistic images that document
the war from the Russian perspective. As an emp-
loyee of a Soviet news agency, Khaldei ensured that
his photographs were acceptable to the Communist
regime. Khaldei was often not credited as the author
of his photographs and never given royalties for
their use in publications.
Khaldeibeganhiscareerasacontributortohis
factory newsletter with images representing laborers
in the Soviet Realist style. This was followed by con-
tributions to various city and regional publications. In
1935, he sent photographs to Fotokhronika of Soyuz-
foto, a precursor of TASS, and was invited to Mos-
cow to take a course in photography where he studied
with Semyon Fridlyand, Arkady Shaikhet, and Max
Alpert and learned a humanistic approach to photo-
journalism. He began working for TASS in 1936.
From 1941–1945, Khaldei followed the Red Army
as a war photographer for TASS. He used a Leica
camera throughout the war. He photographed sol-
diers preparing for battle as inMurmansk, 1942;
soldiers in the midst of liberating a country in
Vienna, April 1945; and at leisure such as the light-
hearted photograph Sailor’s Leisure, Murmansk,
- In these works and others, Khaldei used for-
mal qualities such as well-balanced compositions
and dramatic lighting to make the event appear
monumental. Khaldei is also noted for his images
of women such as female snipers as inLiza the
Sniper, Novorossiisk; Soviet women pilots repre-
sented inWomen Pilots(called ‘‘night witches’’ by
the Germans because they fought at night); crossing
guards as inRoad to Berlin, May 1, 1945; and many
images of innocent bystanders. He also photo-
graphed the victims of war such as theMurdered
Jews in a Synagogue,Budapest,andaJewish Couple,
Budapest, 1945, whose yellow stars he removed from
their coats. Khaldei contributed to the drama of
some of his photographs such asOutskirts of Vienna,
1945, an image of soldiers walking over a Nazi flag
in front of a burning home, by setting fire to the
home which belonged to a concentration camp com-
mandant. Other photographs likeLife Again, Sevas-
topol, May 1944, depicting young sunbathers against
the ruins of the city, were considered too frivolous to
publish at the time.
As the end of the war approached, Khaldei had
seen the famous photograph of Americans raising
the flag at Iwo Jima by Joseph Rosenthal and set out
to create his own flag-raising images. He hired his
family friend, Israil Solomonovich Kishitser, to
make three flags for him which he made from red
tablecloths. Khaldei photographed the first flag
being raised at the airport, and the second flag
being raised at the Brandenburg gate. The third
flag was raised over the Reichstag on May 2, 1945.
At the request of TASS, Khaldei removed the
watches on the solider holding up the flag bearer.
They were concerned that it would be perceived as a
sign of looting or consumerism.
Khaldei also captured the atrocities of war such
as the realistic image,Executed Russian POWs in
Rostov Prison. His images involving war criminals
are equally dramatic such as Suicide of a Nazi
Family, Vienna, 1945, which records a Nazi officer
who killed himself and his family. He recorded the
final defeat of the Germans in his many photo-
graphs of the victory parade in Red Square, Mos-
cow, on June 24, 1945.
After the war, Khaldei photographed the confer-
ence at Potsdam and trials at Nuremburg. Khaldei
photographed numerous images of Joseph Stalin,KESTING, EDMUND