Sovfoto

Sovfoto was established in 1932 as the only agency to represent Soviet photojournalism in America. It continues today as a commercial entity Sovfoto/Eastfoto. Collections from its archive are held also at MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Canada which in 2001 was donated 23,116 vintage gelatin silver prints dating from 1936 to 1957, while Amhurst University holds the Tass Sovfoto Photograph Collection, 1919–1963, the majority being from 1943–1963.

Sovfoto agency was originally established by the USSR in New York in the early 1930s to distribute Soviet press photography throughout North America. After 1941 Sovfoto received photographs, on , from the Sovinformburo (Совинформбюро), culled from TASS. All were printed in the USSR with English captions as they were intended for a North American audience. Associated Press and all the major wire agencies sourced the material, and offered it to illustrated magazines like Life and Look, and also communist-aligned and communist-sympathetic publications, as well as selling to the State Department as the only source of regular visual reportage on the Soviet Union.

After World War II, it continued, adding imagery from Eastern European countries of the Communist bloc as well as China. The agency started doing business as Sovfoto/Eastfoto in the late 1940s, moving offices several times under a series of American owners, including Helen Black (at 11 West Forty-second Street, New York City 18, then 15 West 44th Street) up to 1952, Edwin S. Smith to 1964 (at 24 West 45th Street), then Liuba Solov at 25 West 43rd Street. Solov managed the business until 1974 when Leah Siegel took ownership, moving in 1987 to 225 West 34th Street Suite 1505, and employing Victoria Edwards who bought the company in the early 1990s. Edwards’ son Vanya took over upon her retirement and is the current owner/manager.

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