International photographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

UNWERSAl's ThRlll hlJNTER iN chilNA Krainukov, the author of this article, has spent the last nineteen years in China {the last ten years for Universal Newsreel) covering floods, famines, wars, vendettas and on many occasions he seemed to lead a charmed life, so miraculous were his escapes. Several years ago after the bombing of the Cathey and Palace Hotels. "Time" published Krainukov's photograph with the caption underneath, "George Krainukov s pictures were the most gruesome of them all." When a bomb hit the entrance of the Cathey Hotel and another the roof of the Palace Hotel, he was wounded with a fragment, but kept on grinding until he got the complete story. Dozens of times he has been under direct machine gun fire, bombings, explosions and what not, and always seems to have returned with the story. Krainukov says, "The Newsreel cameraman leads the most thrilling life of any artisan today. He must think quickly and accurately and must face the world's greatest dangers calmly — and eagerly." He has done just that. When the dark and gruesome thunder of war looses its ominous growls over vast plains of death, heroes are molded from the most common of clay. Love of home, love of homeland, perhaps even love of their gods, transforms men into individuals, who fear not death, but only dishonor. Inspired by such all-compelling motives as love, patriotism, or religion, death is naught but constant comrade. One brief moment of glory, and memory of how they passed, in the minds of those they served, the dying deem recompense enough. But what of the unsung heroes, those who hold no passion for either side, whose presence on the far flung theatres of battle is not by choice, but of necessity, whose purpose is not to fight, but merely to record, that the world at large may see, be entertained, perhaps — be amused? I speak of the newsreel cameramen. To paraphrase: "Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to go and try," to get the picture! Whether it be in the vermin infested, fever ridden, foul pest holes of Ethiopia, where sanguine butchery seems to have been a pastime; on the high perched, deadly plateaux of Spain, or in the seething vortex of nations that is the Orient, the aim is the same: GET THE PICTURE! For a few fleeting minutes we see the results on a screen of our neighborhood playhouse and are appropriately appalled at the conditions and events portrayed. But what of the men who got the pictures? Since I left China on my vacation to America, many people approached me to write articles of my experiences in China as a newsreel cameraman, give lectures or even to write a book. Well, I never thought of that and beside I was too busy covering events for the last nineteen years which I spent in China, cranking a motion picture camera all over the country and chasing hot news in floods, famines, wars and bandit vendettas to be flashed across the silver screens the world over. There are many fascinations in the newsreel game despite the innumerable hardships I have gone By George Krainukov, Universal Newsreel Staff Cameraman. through during that nineteen years of turning a camera crank. The story of my career as a newsreel man is packed full of thrills, and being born an adventurous Russian I enjoyed all of my manifold experiences, even when my life hung on a thin thread. Whenever there was a war, be it Japanese, anti-communist or what have you, I was to be found cranking my machine somewhere behind Upper: Krainukov on the front line with the Japanese Army; Lower: With the Chinese Air Force. International Photographer for July, 1941