Magnum Photos anniversary display to retrace Soviet journey in Tbilisi

Photojournalist Thomas Dworzak (left) and reporter Julius Strauss. Photos: swissphotoaward.ch/dailymail.co.uk.
Agenda.ge, 21 Aug 2017 - 15:43, Tbilisi,Georgia

A photographic exhibition retracing a 20th century journey throughout the Soviet Union will mark the 70th anniversary of the famed Magnum Photos cooperative in Tbilisi next month.

The display will showcase a series of photographic stories by World Press Photo award-winning German photojournalist Thomas Dworzak and British reporter Julius Strauss.

With the Tbilisi display, the two journalists will launch exhibitions marking the anniversary of A Russian Journal — an illustration of famed photojournalist Robert Capa and author John Steinbeck’s 1947 travel around the USSR.

Dubrovka theatre interval performance of a children's circus 'Aquamarin' performance. The theatre was the site of the 2002 Nord-Ost hostage-taking by Chechen militants and the ensuing use of poisonous gas by Russian forces which left at least 170 dead. Moscow, Russia. Photo: Thomas Dworzak/Magnum Photos.

Dworzak and Strauss will exhibit their photographs and stories following those by Capa and Steinbeck and narrating about the lives of people in the former Soviet states today.

They have already completed the first stages of their contemporary journey by photographing people and places in Moscow and Kiev.

Georgia is the next destination for the two travellers’ anniversary series, with the journey starting later this month.

Dworzak's photograph of participants of the Miss Moscow beauty pageant. One of the competitors, a FSB graduate, chose to perform in uniform. Photo: Thomas Dworzak/Magnum Photos.

Thomas Dworzak lived in Tbilisi from 1993-1998, working on reporting ethnic conflicts in South Caucasus and his portrayal of the people in the region.

He also covered the post-2001 wars in the Middle East and became member of Magnum Photos in 2004.

Julius Strauss worked as war correspondent documenting conflicts in the Balkans and the Middle East.

He worked for The Daily Telegraph and The Globe and Mail during assignments as well as the journalism department at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Thomas Dworzak's photograph of a Battle for Berlin scene illustration at the Victory Square World War II Museum and Memorial in Moscow, Russia. Photo: Thomas Dworzak/Magnum Photos.

The new photo report of the two journalists will be exhibited during this year’s Tbilisi Photo Festival, set to run from September 13-20.

The photo illustrations of Dworzak and Strauss’ travels will be put on display at the TBC Gallery on September 18, along with a collection of 1947 photographs by Robert Capa.

Capa and Steinbeck toured the Soviet cities and towns for six weeks, travelling to Moscow, Stalingrad, Kiev and the Soviet Georgia.

The resulting Russian Journal was published in 1948, with photographs also ending up in New York Herald Tribune and Ladies’ Home Journal.