The message reads, in part:
“Outstanding photojournalist, legendary TASS photographer Vladimir Musaelyan was a true professional, a passionate and genuinely creative person. Milestones and unforgettable chapters of Russian history, our country’s brilliant achievements in space and Arctic exploration, and sports victories were captured in his talented photo reports. Friends and colleagues respected and praised Vladimir Musaelyan for his extraordinary competence and endless commitment to his work, for his compassion and amazing kind-heartedness.”
Since 1960, Vladimir Musaelyan worked as a correspondent for the TASS Photo Chronicle. His photographs went down in the photography records of our country. For many years, he was a personal photographer of Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He worked as a parliamentary photo correspondent and taught the history of Soviet and Russian photography to journalism students at Lomonosov Moscow State University and Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He received multiple orders and medals, won many professional awards and prizes, including four World Press Photo awards in different categories.
Vladimir Musaelyan passed away on September 28 in Moscow at the age of 81.