Have you heard of Max Penson? Most of us haven't. This major exhibition of over 200 of his photographs introduces his work to a British audience for the first time.
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At the height of his fame, the Jewish photojournalist’s work appeared often on the front pages of Soviet newspapers. One of his pictures took a top prize at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris. But Penson fell victim to the anti-Semitism of Josef Stalin’s totalitarian regime ...Full story

Max Penson has made a comeback nearly a half-century after his death.
At the height of his fame, the Jewish photojournalist’s work appeared often on the front pages of Soviet newspapers. One of his pictures took a top prize at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris.
But Penson fell victim to the anti-Semitism of Josef Stalin’s totalitarian regime, lost his job and spent the rest of his life suffering from illness and depression.
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Max Penson remains largely unknown in the west although he is an equal of the great Russian photographers such as Rodchenko, Zelma, Shakhet and Grinberg.
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Max Penson, a Jewish artist from near Marc Chagall's home town of Vitebsk, fled to Uzbekistan in 1915 to escape war and pogroms. There he learned Uzbek and mastered photography and from 1926-1949 was a photographer for the newspaper Pravda Vostoka, (Party) Truth of the East. In 1949, the beginning of the black years of Soviet Jewry, he was sacked for being a "rootless cosmopolitan", the communist version of Zhid or Yid and lost his licence to photograph. Only in the 1990s has he been rediscovered and now thanks to Roman Abramovich, the Governor of Chukotka, his work has come to London. Abramovich is said to own Chelsea FC but - given his interest in high culture - this is probably just a malicious rumour. ...Full story

Max Penson was a photojournalist who left a unique record of the Sovietization of his adopted homeland, Uzbekistan. Like many who suffered from the widespread anti-Semitism of the time, Penson had to overcome huge obstacles in his work. ...Full story

For many years the name of Max Penson remained practically unknown in the world, but in reality his works deserve to be mentioned alongside those of Alexander Rodchenko and other great Soviet Photographers of the 1920s and 1930s. Max Penson was born in 1893 in Velizh near Vitebsk, the latter city being the birth-place of Marc Chagall. After learning to read and write completely on his own, in 1907 he entered the Velizh Town School which he finished in 1911. He later studied at the College of Art and Industry of the Antokolski Society in Vilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania). ...Full story

The 20th century history of Central Asian countries like Uzbekistan had remained largely hidden until the collapse of communism during the early 1990s.
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The most obvious touchstone for the work of Russian photographer Max Penson is that of his compatriot and contemporary Alexander Rodchenko. But whereas Rodchenko, as a painter, graphic designer and photographer, was well versed in Constructivism, Productivism (integrating art into everyday life) and techniques of photomontage, Penson spent most of his working life as a press photographer in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. His relative isolation from the Russian and European avant-gardes means that the photographs on show here (from the 1920s-’40s) are mostly straightforward documentation of Uzbek life under the Soviets. ...Full story

MOSCOW, Dec. 12 (JTA) -- Max Penson has made a comeback nearly a half-century after his death.
At the height of his fame, the Jewish photojournalist's work appeared often on the front pages of Soviet newspapers. One of his pictures took a top prize at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris. ...Full story

MOSCOW, Dec. 12 (JTA) — Max Penson has made a comeback nearly a half-century after his death.
At the height of his fame, the Jewish photojournalist’s work appeared often on the front pages of Soviet newspapers. One of his pictures took a top prize at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris.
...Full story

The 20th-century history of the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan has remained largely hidden for decades behind a curtain of silence drawn by the rulers of the former Soviet Union. ...Full story

Per molti anni il il nome di Max Penson resta praticamente sconosciuto nel mondo, ma in realtа il suo lavoro merita di essere menzionato a fianco di quello di Alexander Rodchenko e dei grandi fotografi sovietici tra il 1920 e il 1930. Max Penson и nato nel 1893 a Velizh vicino a Vitebsk, la cittа di nascita di Marc Chagall. ...Full story

The London-based Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, 39, is funding an exhibition of photographs by Max Penson (1893-1959) opening on 29 November at the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House in London. Several Russian oligarchs based in St Petersburg and Moscow have supported the arts in the last few years ...Full story

GET ON TO THE BUS "Turkestan: Orientalism in Soviet Avant-Garde Photography" is an exhibit that explores how the Eastern European communist regimes influenced the cultures of ancient Islamic emirates. The photographs are all from the first half of the 20th century. ...Full story

"Le nom de Max Penson est longtemps demeuré inconnu, bien que son ?uvre mérite d’être placée au même rang que celle de Grinberg, de Zelma, de Rodchenko, de Chaïkhet et des autres grands photographes russes", observe Olga Sviblova, directeur du Musée Maison de la photographie de Moscou. ...Full story

For a long time Max Penson’s name was practically unknown although his work deserves to be mentioned alongside that of A. Grinberg, G. Zelma, A. Rodchenko, A. Shakhet and other great Russian photographers.
Max Penson’s archive is truly unique. Even though a considerable portion of this was destroyed and much has perished owing to poor conservation conditions, there are still several thousand negatives and original prints.
Max Penson created his remarkable photographs in a small domestic photo laboratory which for many years did not even have running water. His prints were. His audience and critics were his own family circle. ...Full story

Le nom de Max Penson est longtemps resté inconnu bien que ses travaux méritent d’être placés au même rang que les photos d’Alexandre Rodtchenko et des autres grands photographes soviétiques des années 1920-1930.
Max Penson est né en 1893 à Velij, près de Vitebsk, ville natale de Marc Chagall. Il apprend seul à lire et à écrire. En 1907 il entre au collège municipal de Velij où il étudie jusqu’en 1911. ...Full story

For many years the name of Max Penson remained practically unknown in the world, but in reality his works deserve to be mentioned alongside those of Alexander Rodchenko and other great Soviet Photographers of the 1920s and 1930s.
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Max Penson’s outstanding and poignant images of Soviet Uzbekistan have survived against all the odds. His son Miron recalls how his father spent many nights in his garden, burning the negatives and prints of men and women who became victims of Stalinist purges. ...Full story

Penson's photographs document the sweeping social transformation that happened during this period, as well as showing an awareness of the Modernist aesthetic being explored by artists throughout Europe. Many of the images are clearly underpinned by a socialist, propagandist agenda and show an idealisation of life under Soviet rule.
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« Il est impossible de parler de Fergana sans mentionner l'omniprésent Penson, qui a sillonné tout l'Ouzbékistan avec son appareil. Ses archives, qui ne connaissent pas d'équivalent, permettent de suivre année par année, de feuilleter page après page, toute une période de l'histoire de cette république.
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Il Festival internazionale di FotoGrafia è uno degli eventi fondamentali del programma "I Festival di Roma", a cura del Comune di Roma.
Nato nell'estate 2001 come appuntamento annuale per inserire la città di Roma nel grande circuito internazionale della fotografia, il festival è aperto a tutti i linguaggi della fotografia dal fotoreportage alla fotografia storica fino alle sperimentazioni contemporanee. ...Full story

During the political and social turmoil of the decades surrounding the Russian revolution, Central Asia served as a refuge – or a place of temporary respite - for modernist artists and writers. They came with a variety of ambitions; seeking sun, an exotic locale or a relaxation of the political attention of the center. Almost every Russian photographer of note worked in the region.
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An exhibition of photo works of Max Penson, the famous master of photography, opened at the Tashkent House of Photography (Akhunbabaeva Street) on 4th march 2005. The exhibition is organized by the Embassy of Switzerland in Uzbekistan and carries the name "Unknown Penson". ...Full story