Accession Number
2012/2.67

Title
Battle for Kamenka Village, Near Moscow

Artist(s)
Dmitri Baltermants

Artist Nationality
Russian (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
1941, printed 2003

Medium & Support
gelatin silver print on paper

Dimensions
16 in x 20 in (40.64 cm x 50.8 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James Agah, Class of 1989 (BBA)

Subject matter
In this photograph, the viewer peers out an open doorway onto a village square filled with Soviet soldiers aiming at or running toward an unseen target to the right. The wooden door and thatched roof that establish the top and right edges of the photograph conceal, visually and conceptually, the viewer from the main combat. Nevertheless, one still has the sense of being in the thick of the action, standing only a few paces behind the advancing soldiers. This image forms part of Baltermants’s larger project as an official photographer to the Kremlin, which, spread across numerous portfolios, aimed to document scenes from the Soviet Union’s fight against Nazi Germany during World War II (1939-1945), known in the USSR as the Great Patriotic War.

Physical Description
View out of an open doorway onto a village square with soldiers taking aim at or running toward the right-hand side of the image. 

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
battles
gelatin silver prints
journalistic photography
soldiers
villages
war photography