Everyday Soviet life - captured in color! (PHOTOS)

Yekaterina Sinelschikova

Jul 29 2022

Everyday Soviet life - captured in color! (PHOTOS) — Robert Diament/MAMM/MDF/russiainphoto.ru

Robert Diament stood at the forefront of color photography in the USSR. His style became the face of major publications in the country, as well as the mythology of the “happy Soviet person”.

Robert Diament’s photos are unique in both content and mastery. They were entered into the Anthology of Soviet Photography, published by all major Soviet media and exhibited across the country and world. He was capable of capturing the specificity of an entire era and taking the modern viewer into the past.

Diament was born in Kiev and, at the age of 20, his passion for photography became his second calling: he began getting published in local newspapers, while working as an electrician. His talent was soon noticed in Moscow and, in 1937, he relocated to the capital to shoot parades, document the progress in construction, made by the country, as well as various daily goings-on and feats of accomplishment of the Worker Peasant Party for publishing by the main press.

In wartime, Diament headed to the North Fleet. He went on flights with fighter pilots, documented marine battles, accompanied the Allied convoy on its way from Britain and even went behind enemy lines with spies, which earned him the status of flagship correspondent for the Northern Fleet.

But, after the war, his focus switched to the regular life of the Soviet person and what gave it a particular flavor was that that life was captured in color, which was cutting edge technology at the time, only beginning to phase out black and white photography. Robert Diament’s became some of the first portrayals of the Soviet Union in color.

We look at his most prominent shots of the period.