Lot 34: DEBABOV, DMITRY (1901-1949) Traffic Controller in Leningrad

DEBABOV, DMITRY (1901-1949)
Traffic Controller in Leningrad.
Gelatin silver print, 15 by 23 cm.
Photographed and printed in 1935 (label on the reverse).

Provenance: Private collection, Europe.

Dmitry Debabov (1901–1949) was a Soviet photographer, a pioneer of the “expedition photography”. In 1920s, while working as an actor in Sergei Eisenstein’s First Proletkult Theatre for Workers he was spotted by Eisenstein who encouraged him to take up photography. Debabov studied at the State Institute of Cinematography and worked since early 1930s for the periodicals Yunyi leninets, Rabochaya Moskva, Vechernyaya Moskva and others, becoming the photo correspondent of Izvestia in 1933. During that time he took a lot of photographs in the Russian Far North shooting in Taimyr, Chukotka, Kamchatka and other regions. During World War II Debabov was engaged as war correspondent and also participated in the expeditions to the Barents and Bering Seas. After the war, he mostly worked in the Arctic and Western Siberia.