Selected dates:

December 26, 1869

Born in Minsk (Russian Empire, now the Republic of Belarus). Birth name: Zelimanov Movsha Elya.

1884

He became an apprentice in the photo studio of Minsk photographer Osip Boretti.

1888

He left Minsk and wandered around Russia and other countries. Visited Smolensk, Moscow, Warsaw, Vilnius, Evpatoria. While in America he worked in New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.

1895

He returned to Minsk and opened a portrait photography pavilion.

1910

He moved to St. Petersburg and collaborated with the Sun of Russia magazine.

1912

He became the owner of his own photography studio, located in the very center of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) on ​​the sixth floor of a building on Nevsky Prospekt, 72.

January 1918

Made a portrait of Lenin. In those same years, he made a number of portraits of Lenin's comrades. Among them are F. Dzerzhinsky, Vaclav Vorovsky, Lunacharsky and others.

1919

With the support of Yakov Sverdlov, he organized the first state photography at the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

1920—1930

He photographed prominent people of the country: artists, writers, painters and scientists.

Early 1930s

He was deprived of voting rights and, as a disenfranchised , was subject to expulsion from Moscow. With great difficulty, he managed to get this status revoked and get a job in a photo studio that served tourist photographers.

1935

Received the title of Honored Artist of the Republic.

1938

Having signed an agreement with the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, he completed the famous series of portraits of full members of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

June 13, 1958

He died and was buried at the Vostryakovsky cemetery.