Dziga Vertov’s experimental film ‘Man with a Movie Camera’ (VUFKU 1929) portrays a day in the life of an unnamed Soviet city in 1928. Filming the activities of its inhabitants at work and play the cinematographer (and Vertov’s brother) Mikhail Kaufman also recorded wonderfully sympathetic candid portraits of some of them. Each image is my selection of a particular frame to capture an expression or movement. The screenshots are taken from the outstanding 2014 restoration of ‘Man with a Movie Camera’ by the Eye Film Institute Netherlands and Lobster Films. The clarity of the images is extraordinary for a 93-year-old film enhancing Mikhail Kaufman’s remarkable photography.

Images courtesy of and copyright Eye Film Institute and Lobster Films

Original text and image selection copyright Richard Bossons 2022