- Title: Russian Hermitage presents unique 1930s family photo archive
- Date: 4th July 2017
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) HEAD OF CONTEMPORARY ART DEPARTMENT AT NATIONAL HERMITAGE, DMITRY OZERKOV, SAYING: "Today there is particular interest for amateur photography, because an official photo is a retouched photo, a photo which is cut, which has been manipulated with. Here the story is that an amateur photograph is really genuine for the 1930s. The history is within it."
- Embargoed: 18th July 2017 11:50
- Keywords: Russian art Russia Hermitage St Petersburg Hermitage Khenkin brothers photo exhibition Khenkin photo archive Mikhail Piotrovsky
- Location: ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
- City: ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
- Country: Russia
- Topics: Art,Arts / Culture / Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA0056OAX6BD
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Russian famous Hermitage museum presented on Saturday (July 1) a unique family photo archive produced by two brothers inside and outside of the Soviet Union.
Khenkin brothers - Yevgeny (1900-1938) and Yakov (1903-1941) were amateur photographers who captured day-to-day life of Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and Berlin in the 20s - 30s.
Later the destiny of the two was tragic. When Yevgeny returned to the USSR he was executed on charges of anti-Soviet espionage, while Yakov was killed on the frontlines of the World War Two.
Photographic tapes with around 7000 shots were preserved in their family until recently. Among them one can find simple family photos as well as mass events and views of the two European capitals during the rise of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler regimes.
Exhibition organisers see the project as a way to visualise lives of ordinary people entwined with historic events and politics.
"I thought a parallel between the two brothers and between their destinies is important. They lived in two big cities, imperial cities, the cities where official and non-official history took place. At the same time they took pictures of people's faces, of their smiles, some happenings in the street. That is what their material is about," said Dmitry Ozerkov, head of the contemporary art department at the National Hermitage.
The photographs will be on display until September 24, 2017. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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