For nearly three decades between 1921 to 1949, photographer Max Penson chronicled the profound transformations in Uzbekistan.
The Forgotten Photographer Of Soviet Uzbekistan
As Central Asia was transformed under Soviet rule, one man made a remarkable record of life in the fledgling Uzbek S.S.R. before being driven from his career and toward tragedy.
![A woman poses with a panel of traditional Uzbek embroidery. Penson was soon employed by the Soviet newspaper Pravda Vostoka [Truth Of The East] to shoot Soviet propaganda images as well as daily life.](https://gdb.rferl.org/f95e8665-612e-443d-8121-728d303ba5f0_w1024_q10_s.png)
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A woman poses with a panel of traditional Uzbek embroidery. Penson was soon employed by the Soviet newspaper Pravda Vostoka [Truth Of The East] to shoot Soviet propaganda images as well as daily life.
![Portrait of a railway worker. Penson reportedly committed himself to shooting "one roll [of film] a day."](https://gdb.rferl.org/d2c54c5a-81a9-4229-b38f-fe5001d971e6_w1024_q10_s.png)
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Portrait of a railway worker. Penson reportedly committed himself to shooting "one roll [of film] a day."
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Two old Jewish men in Bukhara. Most of Penson's work was shot with 35mm film cameras, though some pictures, like this one, were shot on large-format glass plates.
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Pharaonic scenes as workers hack out the Great Ferghana Canal in 1939. The 270-kilometer waterway redirected a river toward the cotton fields of southern Uzbekistan. The successful completion of the canal inspired the disastrous rerouting of rivers that would later bleed the Aral Sea nearly dry.