Georgi Zelma

I went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe this weekend to take in

an exhibit of the work of the great Russian/Uzbek photographer,

<b>Georgi Zelma</b>. The photographer began his pioneering

documentary work with a box camera in the early '20s, then moved on to

using glass plates for a time until 1928, when he started using the

recently introduced 35mm format. The text accompanying the photos in

the exhibition had Zelma using a FED camera at that early date, but it

was more likely a Leica as I don't believe the FED appeared until

about 1935. It would be interesting to know if Zelma actually did use

a FED later in his career as a war photographer, including the time he

was documenting the seige of Stalingrad. <a

href="http://www.schicklerart.com/exhibitions/GZ_Portrait/GZ_Portrait_Main.htm">This

page of pictures</a> of Zelma at work includes one of him posing in a

fur hat with a Leica or FED camera having an interesting sportsfinder.

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The Santa Fe exhibit covers the years '24 to '44 and focuses mostly on

Zelma's extraordinary work in Central Asia; some of those photos can

be viewed on-line at the <a

href="http://www.schicklerart.com/auto_exh/CGZel">HOWARD SCHICKLER

GALLERY</a> site. The museum exhibit did not include any of the later

war photos, but many can be found with a search on the photographer's

name; some of the most famous of his Stalingrad pictures can be seen

at <a

href="http://www.stalingrad.com.ru/history/foto/zelma_05-08/foto.htm">this

Russian site</a>.

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The Georgi Zelma exhibit will be at the Museum of Fine Arts through

Januay 25th.