Evgeny Khalei

Today I came upon a photo by the Russian photographer, Evgeny Khaldei.  The photograph that caught my attention was this one entitled "Shellshocked Reindeer":

 

At first glance it's pretty amazing and you can't help but think how lucky he was to be in the right place at the right time...after all, he is a documentary photographer.  But as it turns out it is a composite.  According to Witness to History: The Photographs of Yevgeny Khaldei, "during one of the air raids (WWII), Khaldei took the reindeer shot, but it wasn’t as dramatic as he assumed, so he later superimposed British Hawker Hurricanes, flown by RAF pilots to relieve Murmansk, and an exploding bomb to form a composite image." (http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/shellshocked-reindeermurmansk/). 

Well...this makes it even more interesting to me now for a variety of reasons.  First I question whether constructing a photo montage of a war scene can, in some ways, be more documentary.  When we talk about documentary photography we tend to only refer to the actual physical scene before us, but what about documenting emotions?  Often our perception overrides reality.  Don't you remember being a child in your room at night, lights off, and wondering if those shapes and shadows you saw on the wall were monsters or ghosts or something of that sort?  That those noises and creaks were getting closer to your bed?  Sometimes it seemed and felt so intensely real that no one could have convinced me otherwise until the light got switched on...and then still...I might just say whatever it was left out of fear.  

The experience was real.  The fear was real.  So how do you document that feeling, that experience?  You recreate it.  War brings about very real, very tangible and life-altering emotion.  Most people who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder spend their lives reliving specific moments that froze time in their minds.  You may not be able to recreate a visual scene exactly as it was, but you can recreate a scene that brings forth the same emotion from a specific setting you were a part of.  You can bring back an emotion and document that.  I don't know if that's what Khaldei is attempting to do in his composite, but it could be.  

Another reason I find this so interesting is because it resembles in some ways what I'm doing with my series "Frontiers".  Although I am not trying to bring back an actual emotion I am blending different documentary imagery from different times and places.

As for other photos of Khalei's...I chose a few of my favorite (below) and if you want to know more about his life and see more work go to this link: http://lumieregallery.net/wp/1694/yevgeny-khaldei-biography/

Yevgeny Khaldei

1917-1977

Berlin 1940's

Storm 1930's

Smiling Man with Ships Reflected in Glasses c.1950