King, David, 1943- author. aut

The commissar vanishes : the falsification of photographs and art in Stalin's Russia / David King ; preface by Stephen F. Cohen ; photographs from the David King collection.

First edition

New York : Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, 1997.

192 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 30 cm

The Commissar Vanishes offers a chilling look at how one man - Joseph Stalin - manipulated the science of photography to advance his own political career and to erase the memory of his victims. On Stalin's orders, purged rivals were airbrushed from group portraits, and crowd scenes were altered to depict even greater legions of the faithful. In one famous image, several Party members disappeared from an official photograph, to be replaced by a sylvan glade. For the past three decades, author and photohistorian David King has assembled the world's largest archive of photographs, posters, and paintings from the Soviet era. His collection has grown to more than a quarter of a million images, the best of which have been selected for The Commissar Vanishes.
The efforts of the Kremlin airbrushers were often unintentionally hilarious. A 1919 photograph showing a large crowd of Bolsheviks clustered around Lenin, for example, became, with the aid of the retoucher, an intimate portrait of Lenin and Stalin sitting alone, and then, in a later version, of Stalin by himself. The Commissar Vanishes is nothing less than the history of the Soviet Union, as retold through falsified images, many of them published here for the first time outside Russia. In each case, the juxtaposition of the original and the doctored images yields a terrifying - and often tragically funny - insight into one of the darkest chapters of modern history.

0805052941 (alk. paper)
9780805052947 (alk. paper)
080505295X
9780805052954

Photography Soviet Union History.
Photographs Censorship Soviet Union.
Photographs Political aspects Soviet Union.
Photographs Forgeries Soviet Union.
Photography Retouching Soviet Union.
Photographie Union soviétique Histoire 20e siècle.
Photographies Censure Union soviétique.
Photographies Aspect politique Union soviétique.
Photographies Faux Union soviétique.
Retouche (Photographie) Union soviétique.
Photographie URSS Histoire.
Photographies Censure URSS.
Photographies Aspect politique URSS.
Photographies Faux URSS.
Retouche (Photographie) URSS.
Photographs Censorship
Photographs Forgeries
Photographs Political aspects
Photography
Photography Retouching
Fotografie
Retusche
Geschichtsfälschung
Bildband
Fotomontage
Propaganda
Kunst
Foto's.
Beeldende kunsten.
Vervalsing.
Photographie Censure URSS.
Photographie Aspects politiques URSS.
Retouche (photographie) URSS.
Truquage (photographie) URSS.
Propagande communiste U.R.S.S Histoire 1925-1953.
Soviet Union
Sowjetunion
URSS Histoire 1925-1953.

illustrated books.
Illustrated works
History
Books.
Ouvrages illustrés.

Cohen, Stephen F., writer of preface.

Location: Library main 193011
Call No.: ID TR85.K5; ID:97-B4074
Status: Available