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.
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A young Pioneer trumpets the march of youngsters along a riverbank.
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A gymnast poses near Komsomol Lake in Old Tashkent. By the end of the war, the anti-Semitism that had driven Penson from his homeland was rearing its head across the U.S.S.R.
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A portrait of Stalin oversees work on a collective farm. In 1948, as Stalin's anti-Jewish purges intensified, Penson was fired from Pravda Vostoka.
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Max Penson later in life, languishing without employment and growing increasingly poor. The photographer committed suicide in 1959.