tech
March 14, 2026
'Negatives are photographic truths': the collector who fled Russia with a haul of second world war images
Ukrainian photographer Arthur Bondar has amassed a huge collection of pictures from often unknown photographers
TL;DR
- Arthur Bondar, a Ukrainian-Russian photojournalist, has collected around 35,000 second world war negatives since 2016.
- He believes negatives offer "photographic truths" that are harder to distort than prints, which can be manipulated.
- Bondar smuggled his collection out of Moscow to Germany, facing risks of confiscation, fines, and imprisonment.
- His archive challenges the "comfortable" narrative of WWII promoted by Moscow, aiming to show the "stupidity and uselessness" of war.
- The collection includes works by previously uncredited or forgotten photographers like Valery Faminsky and Olga Ignatovich.
- Bondar has made the images accessible through a website, books, and exhibitions.
- He is seeking an institute to collaborate with to help manage and preserve his extensive archive.
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