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Dmitri Baltermants<br />
Chto takoe chelovek? (What kind of man is this?)<br />
In World War II, Russian photographer Dmitri Baltermants was a Red Army photo journalist. His photos<br />
document the collective shock and the horrors of war and individual suffering.<br />
The photograph Chto takoe chelovek? (What kind of man is this?, aka Grief, or Lamenting the Dead)<br />
was taken following the 1942 Nazi massacre at the Krim town of Kerch. Fallen men are strewn across a field.<br />
The darkening sky underscores the dramatic mood. The world seems to have come to a standstill; the scene<br />
looks frozen, dead. Survivors desperately search for their relatives. A woman has discovered her husband<br />
among the corpses. Another is doubled up in grief, her hope instantly dashed that he might have survived.<br />
Baltermants has captured that moment of devastating truth, the instant when she knows that he will never<br />
return. There is no longer any doubt, only monumental grief.<br />
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