Alexey Brodovitch

Alexey Brodovitch
Born	Alexey Cheslavovich Brodovitch 1898 Ogolichi, Russian Empire (now Belarus)
Died	April 15, 1971 (aged 72–73) Le Thor, France
Occupation	Art director, photographer
Spouse(s)	Nina
Children	Son, Nikita

Alexey Vyacheslavovich Brodovitch (also Brodovich; Russian: Алексе́й Вячесла́вович Бродо́вич, Belarusian: Аляксей Брадовіч; 1898 – April 15, 1971) was a Russian-born photographer, designer and instructor who is most famous for his art direction of fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar from 1934 to 1958.

Alexey Brodovitch was born in Ogolichi, Russian Empire (now Belarus) to a wealthy family in 1898. His father, Vyacheslav or Cheslau Brodovitch, was a respected physician, psychiatrist and huntsman. His mother was an amateur painter. During the Russo-Japanese War, his family moved to Moscow, where his father worked in a hospital for Japanese prisoners. Alexey was sent to study at the Prince Tenisheff School, a prestigious institution in Saint Petersburg, with the intentions of eventually enrolling in the Imperial Art Academy. He had no formal training in art through his childhood, but often sketched noble profiles in the audience at concerts in the city.

At the start of World War I at the young age of 16, Brodovitch abandoned his dream of entering the Imperial Art Academy and ran away from home to join the Russian army. Not long after, his father had him brought home and hired a private tutor to help Alexey finish school. Upon graduating, Brodovitch ran away again on several occasions. He recalls:

After a week or so I ran away to the front line to kill Germans. But my father, now a military general at the head of a Red Cross hospital train, had plenty of influence, and I was soon brought back to him. On the train back I was employed as a nurses' aid. In East Prussia I ran away again and joined a nearby regiment. Once again I was caught, and this time I was sent to an officers' school, the Corps de Pages.

During the Russian Civil War, Brodovitch served with the White Army. While fighting against the Bolsheviks in Odessa, he was badly wounded and was hospitalized for a time in Kislovodsk, in the Caucasus. In 1918, the town was surrounded by the Bolsheviks, forcing Brodovitch into exile. It was during this retreat to the south through Caucasus and Turkey that he met his future wife, Nina.

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