Mikhail Ilych Ryzhak: Photographs of the 1940s
and 1950s

The Night Watch, Odessa, Black Sea, 1940s
Gelatin silver print mounted on board, 15 x 11 1/4” (38.7 x 28.5 cm)

Mikhail Ilych Ryzhak (1904–1990) was a photojournalist based primarily in Odessa (with a brief interlude in Moscow, from 1926 to 1939). In the 1930s, Ryzhak’s photographs appeared regularly in newspapers including Izvestia and Pravda, as well as in the journal SSSR na stroike (USSR in Construction). From 1939 he covered the Odessa military district for the military newspaper Slava i Chest (Glory and Honor) and was stationed at the front during the Second World War.

We are grateful to Nailya Alexander for the biographical information she provided.

All works are gelatin silver prints. Printed by Ryzhak, they are contemporaneous with the images.

Ivan Kozhedub (Ukrainian fighter pilot and three-time hero of the
Soviet Union) with admirers, n.d.
Gelatin silver print, 6 1/4 x 9 3/8” (15.9 x 23.8 cm)

Odessa School, Ukraine, 1940s
Gelatin silver print, 11 1/8 x 15 7/8” (28.2 x 40.3 cm)

Odessa Port, 1940s
Gelatin silver print mounted on board, 11 3/4 x 15 1/2” (29.8 x 39.3 cm)

New Variety of Crops, 1940s–1950s
Gelatin silver print, 11 5/8 x 7 1/2” (29.5 x 19 cm)

Efim Geller (world class, Odessa-based, Jewish chess player) with soldiers, n.d.
Gelatin silver print mounted on board, 12 x 15 3/4” (32.3 x 40 cm)

Mikhail Ryzhak (right, with camera) and unidentified officer, n.d.
Gelatin silver print, 7 x 4 5/8” (19.3 x 11.7 cm)

April 12, 2022