Biography and information
Born on may 13, 1912 in Warsaw, then part of the Russian Empire. In 1915, with the outbreak of the Imperialist war, the family's lawyer Baltermants, stepfather Dmitry moved to Moscow. During the revolution their apartment was turned into a communal apartment, leaving Baltermants one room, where he spent almost the whole life of the photographer. After the death of her husband, the mother of Baltermants, who knew several foreign languages, worked as a typist in the foreign literature Publishing house, Dmitry, from the age of 14 was forced to look for jobs in the printing of "Izvestia", where he helped to make street photographs showcase promoting the best in the world Soviet system. At the same time, Baltermants helped to install the equipment on the set of masters of photography of the time.
In 1939, Dmitry Baltermants graduated from the mechanics and mathematics faculty of Moscow State University and became a lecturer in mathematics at the Higher military Academy, received the rank of captain. A few months later there was a call from "News". Dmitry was invited to go on a business trip and make a report on Soviet troops on the territory of Western Ukraine. "On reflection is gone not much time - the soul was already poisoned with a photograph, left to take up a camera," recalls the daughter of a photographer Tatyana Baltermants. In her archive, unfortunately, not preserved negatives of this story, but this trip decided the fate of Baltermants was enlisted in the staff of Izvestia newspaper and became a professional photographer.
Started World War II. In 1941, German troops approached Moscow. Now known photograph "On the roads of war" was made about twenty kilometers from Moscow. She, like many of Baltermants photographs were not published in wartime. The press was designed to raise the spirit of the people, to assert the pathos of the victory, not showing the tragedy of loss.
In 1942, Baltermants for a few days returned from Stalingrad to Moscow - he had to show and print the photos about the first victories on this front. Among the pictures left to dry overnight in the editorial, were the pictures printed from the film taken near Moscow. Night, in the absence of the photographer, the newspaper management decided to put in the morning room is one of pictures Baltermants. Was chosen a picture of two prisoners by the Germans, and was given signature - German prisoners from Stalingrad. In fact, this photo was taken near Moscow. In the morning we discovered a fatal mistake. The management has written off the liability to the photographer, Baltermants was demoted in rank and sent to a penal battalion. Severe wound in one of their first battles saved him from death, which usually ended the service of the "penalty box". After the hospital Baltermantz, "which washed away the guilt of blood", was rehabilitated and sent a photojournalist in the front newspaper "On the defeat of the enemy", in which he served until the Victory of the troops of the First Ukrainian front.
Most of the front shots of Baltermants, in particular the legendary "Grief" (1942), became a classic of world military photos, was published a decade after the end of the war - with the beginning of the Khrushchev thaw. Baltermants, constantly worked with his archive, selected a small number of pictures that became a universal metaphor of the tragedy of war. Personal exhibition in London (1964), new York (1965), Paris (First international Month of photography, 1990) etc. have turned these stories into characters known around the world.
Dmitry Baltermants was awarded many orders and medals, but after the war cooperation with the former "penal" refused all major Soviet publications. Only AA Surkov, the chief editor of "Ogonek" - invited him to my journal, where Dmitry Baltermants worked until the end of his life, first as a photojournalist and then as the head of the photo Department. After the war, "Twinkle", one of the best magazines of the USSR, started to print color photos and images of Baltermants have become classics of "early color".
Despite the fact that the career of Baltermants by Soviet standards, was very successful: he shot a lot, a lot of the world, had the opportunity to work abroad, his exhibitions were held in the USSR and abroad - Baltermants was never a Soviet photographer. His brilliant professionalism, impeccable sense of composition, an innate gentility allowed him, normally ladiva with the Soviet authorities, always remain an independent artist and a cosmopolitan. Even in the most lyrical images Dmitri Baltermants was able to distance itself from what is happening, so most of his work is not just fotoarhivatsiya Russian history, but also a kind of philosophical metaphor of his time.
In 1985 Perestroika began, the whole world welcomed the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev. "Spark", which was still working Dmitry Baltermants became a symbol of change in the Soviet Union. During these years all his spare time Baltermants was his work from its archive, re-selecting the "exhibition prints". With the advent of glasnost, he received the opportunity to publish their best shots, which in Soviet times did not fit into the framework of the official style.
Visual language Dmitri Baltermants, compared to other contemporary photographers, have been more understandable to other Western experts and the audience. Therefore, it is one of the few Soviet photographers, who during his lifetime received the recognition abroad. Josef Koudelka was doing his portraits and gave him the pictures; he was known and loved by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Marc Riboud, Robert Doisneau and other European masters of photography. Baltermantz adored friends and colleagues in Russia. This strong, smart, courageous and beautiful person wrote the history of the country, which is now in great demand in Russia.
(from the article Classics of Russian photography)
