Yevgeny Khaldei

Yevgeny Khaldei was a Ukrainian-born Soviet photojournalist, now known for his famous image of troops raising the Soviet flag over Berlin’s Reichstag in 1945. Khaldei took an interest in photography from an early age, building his first camera from a salvaged box and the lenses from his grandmother’s old glasses. By age eighteen he was working professionally as a photographer for the official Soviet news agency, Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS). Khaldei worked as a correspondent for TASS during World War II, capturing dramatic images of the devastation of combat. Despite the challenges posed by widespread antisemitism, Khaldei persevered and continued to find work as a photojournalist and photo-lab technician within the Soviet Union.