Does anyone remember an “iconic” photograph showing an elderly Russian woman in a heavy coat and kerchief standing with outspread arms as she seems to recognize one of the victims of a recent battle/massacre? (It could even be a “still” from a WWII Soviet film.) Is it anywhere on the Web? Does anyone have any information on where, and under what circumstances, this photo was made?
I suspect that that’s not it.
I have a vague impression of the image the OP might be seeking.
I think it’s one of those emblematic WWII images, like the denunciation of the former concentration camp guard and the shearing of the ?French? woman who was accused of being a collaborator, but I can’t think of appropriate titles or search terms for it.
By thinking of “iconic” this would be the one which comes into my mind at first…
I’m afraid I’m experiencing an ‘iconic’ overload at present.
Every frigging journalist in this country throws ‘iconic’ around at every opportunity. It’s the big buzzword of the moment. They wouldn’t know an icon, Russian, Buddhist or even an Egyptian pyramid if it was inserted into them blunt end first.
It makes me even more of an iconoclast than I was before. 
The OP’s specifications recall something about a distraught kerchiefed woman with outstretched arms seeing a victim, but then again that image was captured countless times during WWII and subsequently.
P.S. It might be that images which are well known in Europe are not well known here. The image I’m thinking of is of the type which could have been a Life magazine image which was often reproduced rather than some obscure news image.
I guess that’s why I used “quotes” around that word. I know what you mean about buzz-words… To me, “having issues” still means accumulating back copies of Time and Newsweek, and a “hidden agenda” means nobody knows why the meeting’s been called. I’m getting old !
:mrgreen:
Well, like, going forward; at, like, this point in time; like, at the end of the day;the bottom line is, like, that I know where you’re like coming from, and all. Like, absolutely. Even totally. Your comment was, like, literally awesome, Dude.
A mate of mine amuses himself during pointless management meetings appearing to make notes. He is really keeping score on how often the speaker says ‘going forward’, which has been our National Number 1 substitute for Um for the past few years. He gets some depressingly large totals.
None of this is helping you find your picture. Do you have any more information that might help someone identify it?
Ah …THIS is the picture! Now if I could remember where I found it…
Now that I found the photo I was looking for, I ran several “search queries” through the AltaVista and Google engines and came up with some interesting “background”!
(I first came across this image when it was part of a photographic exhibition in San Francisco, in the summer of 1968.)
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The title of the photograph is simply “Grief”. It was taken by Russian Photographer Dmitry Baltermants in 1942, when he was approximately 30 years old.
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The photograph depicts Russian women near the Crimean City of Kerch as they look for loved ones following a massacre of civilians by German Forces.
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The photograph went into the Soviet Archives but was not immediately published-- possibly because its sombre tone (the cloudy sky was “burned in” during development) made it appear “Defeatist”.
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When the German magazine “Stern” published the image many years after the war’s end, it instantly won International acclaim, and has been widely reproduced ever since.
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Polish-Born Dmitry Baltermants passed away in 1990; he continued taking historic photographs almost to the end of his life.
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Another of Baltermants’ famous Wartime images, entitled “Forward!” is a low-angle shot of Soviet Riflemen leaping across a trench.
Emchista,
Thanks for that info.
As a picture, it’s a great one. Apart from the compelling subject matter, the composition and lighting is perfect.
Your picture isn’t the one I have in mind. Mine is in a village or near a house.