Cynthia Elbaum
{{Short description|American photojournalist (1966–1994)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Cynthia Elbaum
| image = cynthia elbaum 1989.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Elbaum in 1988
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1966|3|19|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Ashfield, Massachusetts, United States{{cite web|title=Mother recalls heroic daughter|url=http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/mother_recalls_heroic_daughter.html|website=MassLive|date=27 August 2008 |accessdate=18 August 2017}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1994|12|22|1966|3|19|mf=y}}
| death_place = Chechnya, Russia
| education = Smith College
| field = Photography
| training =
| movement =
| works =
| patrons =
| awards =
| spouse =
}}
Cynthia Elbaum (March 19, 1966 – December 22, 1994) was an American photojournalist, killed in Chechnya, where she was working as a freelancer for Time, the BBC, Moscow Times, reporting on the First Chechen War.
Biography
Cynthia Elbaum, who was of Russian descent and grew up in Ashfield, Massachusetts, attended UMass Amherst from 1984 -1987 while taking classes at Smith and graduated from Smith College in 1989 with a major in Russian studies. She traveled frequently to the former Soviet Union, working as a freelance photojournalist.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/23/world/as-russian-pilots-close-in-it-was-terrifying.html|title=As Russian Pilots Close In: 'It Was Terrifying'|date=1994-12-23|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-03-06|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} Elbaum studied Russian at the University of Moscow after graduating from Smith and also worked as a freelance photographer in Russia before returning to the States where she worked as a translator for a Time photographer and taught English to Russian refugees.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smith.edu/newssmith/spring2007/elbaum.php|title=War in Winter: The Photography of Cynthia Elbaum '89|last=|first=|date=|website=NewsSmith|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209100941/http://www.smith.edu:80/newssmith/spring2007/elbaum.php |archive-date=2007-12-09 |access-date=}} Elbaum began her career as a photojournalist in 1992, after she witnessed dead bodies on a Moscow street following Boris Yeltsin's takeover of the Russian parliament.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smith.edu/newssmith/spring2007/elbaum.php|title=War in Winter: The Photography of Cynthia Elbaum '89|last=Fuller|first=Carole|date=|website=NewsSmith|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209100941/http://www.smith.edu:80/newssmith/spring2007/elbaum.php |archive-date=2007-12-09 }}
On assignment for Time magazine during the start of the first war in Chechnya, Cynthia was photographing in the streets of Grozny, the capital of the breakaway republic, when she was killed in a Russian bombing raid. She is the first journalist known to have been killed in that war.[http://todayintheuk.blogspot.com/ Journalists killed in Russia] At least 23 other civilians were killed in the shelling.{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/e571215b2b18356c32e0974422e473f7|title=American Freelance Photographer Killed in Russian Raid With AM-Russia-Chechnya, Bjt|website=AP NEWS|access-date=2020-03-06}}
Legacy
Elbaum's papers are held at Smith College.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smith.edu/newssmith/spring2007/elbaum.php|title=Smith College: NewsSmith|website=www.smith.edu|access-date=2020-03-06}}
Cynthia Elbaum name was written on the glass panels of the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.{{cite web |url=https://www.masslive.com/living/2019/02/smith_college_symposium_includes_late_photojournalists.html |title=Smith College to exhibit late photojournalist's 'Portraits of War' |date=February 3, 2019 |website=masslive.com |access-date=September 3, 2020}}
References
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External links
- "Cynthia Elbaum: A Life In Pictures, 2012 Ashfield Film Fest Grand Prize Winner" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRAjDwBmhFU
- "CD for Cynthia: Musician remembers photojournalist friend, Smith grad, killed while covering Chechen-Russian War" http://www.gazettenet.com/Archives/2015/01/Cynthia-hg-020515
- [https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/803 Cynthia Ellen Elbaum papers] at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections
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Category:American photojournalists
Category:Journalists killed while covering the Chechen wars
Category:American war photographers
Category:Women in the Chechen wars
Category:American women war correspondents
Category:American war correspondents
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:People from Ashfield, Massachusetts
Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers
Category:20th-century American women photographers