It was a big, old camera that allowed me to get my first negative. It happened in the student photo-laboratory of the Moscow Polygraph Institute, in 1946.

My long way to photo art has been started in the severe, hungry years after the World War Two.For the sake of studying you had to think of your surviving.

Having learned the basis of photo art I went to take photos of the demobilized soldiers on The Square of Three Railway Stations.

Those soldiers had no money but they had enough bread. I got a piece of the black bread as my first salary for photographs. That was too important for me, the pure student, and my parents who still suffered from military wounds. The first time when I saw my photo published was in the institute newspaper, "Stalin's publisher". It happened in 1947.

While being student I learned colored photo and began working for many journals.My first task was to shoot the series named "Resorts of The Black Sea".There, on the dance club I met my future wife Tanya.We spoke for much time, trying to recall where we could see each other.

Suddenly we figured out that we studied at the same Institute, at the same department. However, she learned literal edition while I was going to become the art editor.

The head of The Institute's Communist organization who knew about our serious intentions said: "You took part in the Patriotic War, and you swore to die as a communist. How could you marry the girl who is not a Comsomol member?" He promised to help me make a good choice.

I was thinking of my moral code, was trying to excuse myself and promising to raise my bride "up to my level". I have been doing that for 57 years already!

In a little while we graduated from the Institute, and we though that many options are available; so, we together could work as a publishing house plus a photographer. We only had to choose: romantics "invited" us to the wonderful places where no one with a camera had ever been. We tried a lot of opportunities, but unfortunately potential employers had not been interested in my original diploma project of "The Soviet Union" journal. They all wanted to know about our nationality. As a result we received the standard reply from all the points of the USSR: "At the moment we have no free beds in our hostels".
It was very insulted of course, but it was the real life.

Certainly, I found the work for myself because there had been a plenty of new journals in the country; finally I joined the staff of "OGONYOK", together with many famous Soviet photographers.

For a lot of years I collected the photos, and I am very glad that the collection has been saved and shown through Internet.

My wife, Tatiana, worked at "Academy of Sciences" editorial office. At the same time she brought up our son who was the source of both good emotions and big problems for us. So, he refused to join the Young Comsomol League (like his mother!) and as a result he was excluded from the University.

We expected new troubles, and at last we decided to repatriate to Israel. That was a real risk. But all the "defects" of our autobiographies assisted us at that moment. After some formal procedures, in 1973, we left Moscow-city.

In Israel we could find the "free beds", apartment, work and the University grant for our son.