Kremlin

by David Douglas Duncan

Fortress, treasure house, the heart of an Empire, Moscow’s Kremlin is the national shrine of a mighty people – a symbol of the turbulent, dramatic, often tragic history which lies behind the present day reality of the Soviet Union. In 1956, David Douglas Duncan (1916-2018), the internationally famous photographer best known for his dramatic combat photographs from WWII, Korea and Vietnam , astonished art and political circles by winning sudden and unprecedented permission from the soviets to use his color cameras without restriction within the Kremlin. No other photographer had ever been granted such carte blanche authority to carry cameras into the Soviet citadel. Duncan visited Moscow five times over a period of three years to photograph painstakingly in color the incalculable treasures of church and state, the great cathedrals, the throne rooms and even the bedroom of the Tsars. His color transparencies have been transformed in THE KREMLIN, a photographic document which is unique in subject and execution. Every picture was made with 35mm cameras, then faithfully reproduced by the most advanced technical methods available at that time. THE KREMLIN offers a rare and startlingly beautiful view through the iron curtain, which existed from 1945 to 1991. Completely non-political, with its combination of panoramic history and brilliant photography, it is an evocation of the spirit of the Russian past as the Russians themselves felt it – somber, mysterious and magnificent.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

David Douglas Duncan (January 23, 1916 – June 7, 2018) was an American photojournalist.

He is best known for his dramatic combat photographs of the Second World War, the Korean & Vietnam wars, as well as for his extensive domestic photography of Pablo Picasso.

Duncan turned 100 in January 2016 and died in June 2018 in Grasse, France, aged 102.
In 2021, Duncan was posthumously inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.