Arkadi Samoylovich Shaikhet

Arkadi Shaikhet first worked as fitter in the shipyards and came into contact with photography when working as retoucher in the studio of a Moscow photographer. In 1924 he started to work for "Ogonyok". From the outset his name was linked closely with the development of Soviet photo-journalism. He was not interested in the huge construction sites but was fascinated by man. He was one of the team of four journalists (the photographers Alpert, Shaikhet and Tules and the editor Mezhericher) who were responsible for creating the picture story "24 hours in the life of the Filippov family". From 1930 on he collaborated with "SSSR na stroyke" and "Nashi dostizhenya" (Our Successes). During the Second World War he worked as war photographer-reporter. Source: Daniela Mrázková and Vladimir Remeš, Early Soviet Photographers, London: Shadowdean Ltd, 1982, p. 87