Photo Exhibition: Sergei Dovlatov: Alone in the Ring

Columbia University, Morningside Campus

International Affairs Building, Harriman Atrium

12th floor IAB, 420 West 118th Street, New York, NY

Curators are the Russian New York writer Sergei Dovlatov's widow, Elena, and Natasha Sharymova.

The Harriman Institute, in cooperation with the Dovlatov Estate and The New York Plus Plus, i-newsletter, will present a photo exhibit chronicling the life of the Russian writer Sergei Dovlatov, from his childhood years in Russia to the émigré life in the United States.

The exhibit is composed of photos from the Dovlatov family archive, from Ksana Mechik’s archive, some were taken by the writer’s friends and professional photographers, including Nina Alovert, Mark Serman, Mikhail Lemkhin, Leonid Lubianitsky.

Sergei Dovlatov settled in New York City, where he and a group of former Soviet journalists founded the “largest Russian weekly in the world” called the New American. Dovlatov immigrated to the U.S. to become a professional man of letters and was proud that he had reached his goal.

During the twelve years he lived in the US, Dovlatov’s popularity boomed. He published twelve books in Russian and five in English – The Compromise, The Zone: A Prison Guard’s Story, Ours: A Family Album, A Foreign Woman and The Suitcase, all of which have since been translated into most European languages, as well as Chinese and Japanese.

Dovlatov was a recipient of the US Pen Club award and nine of his stories were published in The New Yorker, making him only the second Russian writer, after Vladimir Nabokov, to appear in the prestigious magazine.

Sergei Dovlatov died on August 24, 1990 and is buried in New York City. Posthumously he became one of the best-loved and best-selling authors in his native Russia. Numerous documentary films have been made about his life, several feature films were shot based on his works, plaques are honoring places where he lived, and interest in his life and work is only increasing.

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