A Woman Finds Her Husband, Kerch, Crimea

Accession Number
2012/2.68

Title
A Woman Finds Her Husband, Kerch, Crimea

Artist(s)
Dmitri Baltermants

Artist Nationality
Russian (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
January 1942, 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, three heavily bundled figures—two women and one man—stand in a barren field littered with dead bodies, evidently victims of a recent battle. One woman, who occupies the exact center of the photograph, recognizes one of the fallen soldiers as her husband. While her two compatriots are expressionless, this woman’s face is a whir of grief: not only are her features contorted, but the camera itself is also out of focus in precisely this area. 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
Two women and a man stand over a pile of dead bodies; one woman is visibly in a state of distress. 

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
dead (people)
gelatin silver prints
grief
journalistic photography
war photography
women (female humans)

& Author Notes

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