(b Rostov-on-Don, 1903; d Moscow, 1971). Russian photographer. He developed an interest in photography in his youth and began working as a professional photojournalist on moving to Moscow in 1924. He was particularly concerned with documenting the industrialization of the country after the Revolution of 1917, working until c. 1930 for the newspapers Trud and Pravda. In 1928–30, as head of the information department on the building site of the Magnitogorsk steelworks, he made his powerful series the Magnitogorsk Steelworks under Construction (see Morozov and Lloyd, pp. 193–7), which shows his characteristic use of low viewpoints, angled shots and dramatic chiaroscuro. From 1930 to 1941 he worked for SSSR na stroyke, and early issues of the magazine were filled with his photographs, which were particularly expressive of the magazine’s own sentiments. His series on life on the cooperative farms, for example To the Sound of Music and Carrying Banners, the Workers Start the Joint Harvest (1933; see 1982 exh. cat., pp. 48–9), are especially memorable, inspiring images. Petrusov brought the same strong sense of composition and drama to his portraits and his pictures from World War II, when he reached Berlin with the Soviet Army. From 1957 to 1971 he worked for Sovetskaya zhizn’ (‘Soviet Life’) and other magazines.