Background
Zel’ma, Georgii was born in 1906 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Zel’ma, Georgii was born in 1906 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
In 1921, moved with his family to Moscow. Started taking amateur pictures with an old Kodak camera. Apprentice at the Russfoto Agency which supplied pictures to the foreign press.
In 1924, sent by Russfoto back to his native Tashkent to become their Central Asian photo-correspondent. His knowledge of the Uzbek language meant that the Agency was provided with detailed captions and picture reports. From the late 1920s until the war, worked for various Moscow newspapers and magazines including USSR in Construction, Krasnaia Zvezda, Izvestia and the Soiuzfoto Picture Agency.
Commissioned by Roman Karmen, the famous documentary maker, to produce stories entitled The USSR From the Air and Ten Years of the Iakut Soviet Socialist Republic. Both stories were published in USSR in Construction. With Maks Alpert, produced a special issue about the chemical works in Solikamsk.
During World War II, correspondent for Izvestia. After the war, worked for the magazine Sovetskaia Zhenshchina.