‘As they see us’ 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.
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.
Robert Capa / International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos
Dancers work on their technique at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Moscow, 1958.
Cornell Capa / International Center of Photography / Magnum Photos
Bratsk (Irkutsk Region), 1967.
Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos
Fashionable youngsters in Leningrad, 1987.
Ferdinando Scianna / Magnum Photos
Soviet poet Arseny Tarkovsky. Moscow, 1979.
Gueorgui Pinkhassov / Magnum Photos
Victory Day celebrations. Moscow, 1989.
Harry Gruyaert / Magnum Photos
Workers put up election posters featuring Boris Yeltsin opposite Red Square. Moscow, 1996.
Thomas Hoepker / 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.
Thomas Dworzak / Magnum Photos
A room for newlyweds at Prison Camp No. 27. Krasnoyarsk, 2001.
Carl De Keyzer / Magnum Photos
Nurse Margarita Sokolova. Moscow, 2020.
Nanna Heitmann / Magnum Photos
Medical workers perform a bronchoscopy. Moscow, 2020.
Nanna Heitmann / Magnum Photos
Members of the Vissarion sect during a Christmas pilgrimage. Krasnoyarsk Territory, 2015.
Jonas Bendiksen / Magnum Photos
Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Region, March 2015.
Steve McCurry / Magnum Photos