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Aleksandr Rodtxenko, Varvara Stepanova. Moscow. Moscow: State Art Publishers, 1939
“A significant place among the exhibits of the USSR’s pavilion at the New York World’s Fair of 1939-40 was allotted to Soviet photography. It also featured at the exhibition as additional illustrative and documentary material. The artistic side of the project included a large publishing programme (…) At that time only photographers with special permission could take pictures on the street of Soviet cities, and especially the capital, which limited the editor’s choice of material. The album Moscow is a photographic digest of the main events in recent years. It begins with Nikolai Kuleshov’s picture “celebration for the Twenty-First Anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution, 7 November 1938” which is followed by images of the leaders of the state, heroes of the Arctic, aviators, scientists, the new Soviet intelligentsia (in the person of the Soviet count Alexei Tolstoi), May Day marches, meetings of shock workers, manufacturing facilities, sport competitions, street panoramas, new architecture, the Moscow Metro.”
Mikhail Karasik. The Soviet photobook, 1920-1941. Göttingen: Steidl, 2015 (p. 464)