I can’t find an exact date for this photograph but it’s definitely outside our usual timeframe. It was probably taken around 1944. I’m posting it anyway though because it’s such a remarkable picture.

wikimedia

The man in this picture is Yuri Valentinovich Knorozov. He was born in 1922 and lived the majority of his life in the Soviet Union.

He was a linguist, an epigraphist, and an ethnologist.

Yuri is the main subject. I wonder if he just looked like that all the time, or if he was consciously  looking extra -sweet while getting his picture taken. 

Want to play a little creative writing game? Take a good look at the picture and then write down a description of it, Write as if you’re describing the image to a friend who will never see the picture. how would you describe Yuri’s appearance and demeanor? What would you guess his personality is like?.