Mikhail Kaufman

Mikhail Kaufman

1897-09-05 – 1980-11-03 (age 83) Bialystok, Grodno Province, Russian Empire (now Poland)
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Biography

Mikhail Kaufman was a Soviet cinematographer and photographer. In the 1920s, after Mikhail Kaufman returned from the Russian Civil War, his brother director Dziga Vertov offered him the opportunity to participate in his newsreel series Kino-Pravda as a cameraman.

Kaufman directed photography for several films, including Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera. The film is built around meta-reference and is full of innovative visual effects: in it, Kaufman acts as a cameraman and is seen shooting the film while walking on high bridges, hanging off the side of a train, climbing a smokestack and crawling underground with miners – all in order to get the best shot.

Mikhail Kaufman directed three films: Moscow (1927), In Spring (1929), and An Unprecedented Campaign (1931).

Photos

Known For

Man with a Movie Camera
Man with a Movie Camera

1929

as The Cameraman

World Without a Game
All Vertovs
All Vertovs

2002

as (archive footage)

Kino-Pravda No. 8