10 BEST Russian photographers (PHOTOS)

1. Karl Bulla 

Karl Bulla (1855-1929) is frequently called the founding father of Russian photography. In the late 19th century, he opened one of the first photo studios in St. Petersburg, which became famous throughout the country. He was a photo witness of an entire epoch, making the first street photography and, thanks to him, we can today observe Tsarist Russia at its end and see the realities that have been irretrievably lost.

Whether it be ordinary Petersburgers or the brightest signs of the times. In addition, he made many photographic portraits of famous personalities, from Leo Tolstoy to Nicholas II.

See more photos by Karl Bulla here.

2. Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky

Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky (1863-1944) revolutionized photography, as he was the first in Russia to take color shots. His photographic legacy is invaluable, as having traveled all over the Russian Empire, he captured its sights, nature and people in color.

Pictures taken by him include ancient churches, the latest industrial facilities for their time, portraits of celebrities, everyday scenes from the lives of ordinary people and much more.

See more photos by Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky here.

3. Alexander Rodchenko

Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) is perhaps one of the most famous Russian photographers and a true revolutionary in photography. This avant-garde artist experimented a lot, using his portable 35mm camera to take pictures from unusual angles: from above, below and from all sides, showing viewers a new way of looking at familiar things.

And he photographed the new Soviet reality – sports parades, the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal – and the new people of the era, like Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lily Brik. The latter was immortalized by him in an advertisement for the ‘Lengiz’ book publishing house (see the portrait above). For him, photography was art and his approach changed the genre forever.

Discover main photographs by Alexander Rodchenko here. Portrait (c) Isaak Brodsky/MAMM/MDF/russiainphoto.ru

4. Yevgeny Khaldei 

Yevgeny Khaldei (1917-1997) was the most famous Soviet military photo correspondent, who is now considered a classic of military photo newsreels. It was he who captured trench life and showed what it was like to be on the front line.

He both visited the Northern Fleet and documented battles on the Black Sea coast. He made all the way to Berlin with the Soviet troops and took the famous shot known to the whole world – the Victory Banner over the Reichstag.

See more photos by Yevgeny Khaldei here. Portrait (c) Vyacheslav Runov/Sputnik

5. Vsevolod Tarasevich

Through Vsevolod Tarasevich’s (1919-1998) photos, one can trace the whole history of the USSR. For 50 years, he made reports from the most diverse corners of the country and portraits of ordinary people, from miners to collective farmers.

It is hard to imagine a story or a milestone of Soviet life that would not have been reflected in his work: both horrors of war and joy of peaceful life, as well as the new professions, children, large construction sites and much more.

See more photos by Vsevolod Tarasevich here. Portrait (c) Yashin/Sputnik

6. Dmitry Baltermants

Images taken on the fronts of World War II, during the Battle of Moscow, at Stalingrad and in Crimea made Dmitry Baltermants (1919-1990) famous. However, Soviet editors were perplexed: "Why do you have half a man there?" and would often refuse to publish the photographer’s unusual shots.

His unconventional, avant-garde optics, incomprehensible to Soviet party officials, were at the same time in a big demand abroad. He became one of the few Soviet photographers who was recognized worldwide already during his lifetime and his solo exhibitions were held in London and New York.

See more photos by Dmitry Baltermants here. Portrait (c) Nikolai Akimov/TASS

7. Vladimir Lagrange

Vladimir Lagrange (1939-2022) captured the spirit of the Soviet thaw period. In 1959, he became a photo correspondent for TASS, the country’s main news agency. The ‘Khrushchev Thaw’ in politics gave rise to new freedoms in photography (and life), as well.

Lagrange refused to take staged, ideologically aligned photos; his pictures are a reportage of real life and a hymn to the everyday.

See more photos by Vladimir Lagrange here. Portrait (c) Pavel Smertin/TASS

8. Igor Mukhin

The bold rock’n’roll photos by Igor Mukhin (b. 1961) show the Soviet perestroika, the 1980s and 1990s.

Viktor Tsoi, Zhanna Aguzarova, Vladimir Sorokin, Boris Grebenshchikov and other faces of the era stare back at us in these shots.

Mukhin also revealed a new, informal Moscow that was feeling its first taste of real freedom.

Portrait (c) Sputnik

9. Gueorgui Pinkhassov

Andrei Tarkovsky once saw Gueorgui Pinkhassov’s (b. 1952) photos and was amazed that much that invited the young photographer to shoot a report about the ‘Stalker’ (1979) movie filming process.

The photographer himself graduated from Moscow’s prestigious VGIK (Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography) film school and was known as an independent photographer with an unusual vision of the world. Familiar everyday scenes turned into surrealistic works of art in his photos.

In the 1980s, Pinkhassov emigrated and became the only Russian photographer of the legendary Magnum Photo agency. And his work has been published in the most authoritative international publications.

Portrait (c) AFP

10. Sergey Maximishin

Sergey Maximishin (b. 1964) is considered a mastodon of Russian photojournalism right now. He is a multiple winner of the ‘World Press Photo’ contest as well as other various photographic awards. He is a distributor for many of the most authoritative publications, both in Russian and foreign, and teaches the art of photography.

In 2007, he published a book of photographs from different parts of the former Soviet republics, tracing what is left of ‘The Last Empire’, i.e. the USSR.

See more photos by Sergey Maximishin here. Portrait (c) Vladimir Smirnov/TASS

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