Max Penson, Photographs 1925 - 1945

The international festival of FotoGrafia is one of the main events of the season "The Festivals of Rome" , organised by the Rome City Council.
Starting in 2001 as an annual fixture aimed at putting Rome on the map of international photography, the festival is open to all styles of photography from photojournalism to historical photographs to contemporary experimentation.
From May 8th to June 22nd 2003 there are more than 40 exhibitions, meetings and events , in atmospheric settings, always open to innovation.
Max Penson was born into a poor family in 1893 in Velizh, in Bielorussia and taught himself to read and write.

In 1915, fleeing from the pogroms and the First World War, Penson ended up in Kokand (Central Asia) where he earned his living as an accountant and teacher of art until 1917. Following that, he directed the Kokand Municipal Art Studios for five years.

In 1921, a camera offered to him by the Kokand Regional Council changed the life of this painter and drawer.
Max Penson started to study photography. In 1923, he set himself up in Tashkent (Uzbékistan), where he started to meet photographers who ran professional studios and became interested in photographic reportage. Between 1926 and 1948, he worked as photographer for the Eastern version of "Pravda" and for the Red Army between 1940 and 1945.

In 1939 Max Penson held his only exhibition of photographs, for which the catalogue was co-designed with Alexandre Rodtchenko: to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, he showed 300 photographs.
Max Penson's work includes several thousand negatives and original prints, sadly partially destroyed or badly damaged due to their poor conservation.
Penson worked in a laboratory, in his own house, without the benefit of running water for a long time, surrounded by his wife, their four children and the neighbours.