Portraits of Russia’s last 73 years, as captured by documentary photographers
St. Petersburg’s Manege Central Exhibition Hall launched a new exhibition on July 6, titled “As they see us. A portrait of Russia by the Magnum Agency.” The display features the work of famous documentary photographers such as Henri Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa, Eve Arnold, Thomas Dworzak, and others, who took photographs in the USSR and Russia between 1947 and 2020. The exhibition at the Manege — expertly curated by photo historian Nina Gomiashvili — includes 265 works from 39 Magnum Agency photographers, some of which are being shown to the public for the very first time.
Robert Capa / International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos Tourists visit Moscow’s Red Square in 1947.Robert Capa / International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos John Steinbeck and Robert Capa captured in the reflection of a mirror. USSR, September 1947.Cornell Capa / International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos Dancers work on their technique at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Moscow, 1958.Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos Bratsk (Irkutsk Region), 1967.Ferdinando Scianna / Magnum Photos Fashionable youngsters in Leningrad, 1987.Gueorgui Pinkhassov / Magnum Photos Soviet poet Arseny Tarkovsky. Moscow, 1979.Harry Gruyaert / Magnum Photos Victory Day celebrations. Moscow, 1989.Thomas Hoepker / Magnum Photos Workers put up election posters featuring Boris Yeltsin opposite Red Square. Moscow, 1996.Thomas Dworzak / Magnum Photos Chechens celebrate victory over the Russian army at a cemetery where people who died during various wars in the Caucasus are buried. Tsotsi-Yurt, Chechen Republic, September 1996.Carl De Keyzer / Magnum Photos A room for newlyweds at Prison Camp No. 27. Krasnoyarsk, 2001.Nanna Heitmann / Magnum Photos Nurse Margarita Sokolova. Moscow, 2020.Nanna Heitmann / Magnum Photos Medical workers perform a bronchoscopy. Moscow, 2020.Jonas Bendiksen / Magnum Photos Members of the Vissarion sect during a Christmas pilgrimage. Krasnoyarsk Territory, 2015.Steve McCurry / Magnum Photos Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Region, March 2015.
