History and culture: The exhibition “Private life. Family album from the ROSPHOTO collection” is opened in Saint-Petersburg

The State Museum-Exhibition Center ROSPHOTO with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation from November 27, 2015 presents in Saint-Petersburg the exhibition “Private life. Family album from the collection ROSPHOTO”.

The exhibition explores the tradition of family photographic archive of Russia. The focus is on family photo albums, collections of photographs and negatives of the second half of the XIX – mid XX century.

The exposition allows us to trace the history of a family album for a century - from the birth of photography to the mass of the Russian passion for photography in the Soviet period - and to see how modern approach to the creation and execution of a family photo archive developed.

In 1839, with the first cameras in Russia, the painting replaced light painting with the creation of portrait images. An early daguerreotype becomes family heirloom and continuing formation of the ancestral portrait gallery in the homes of high society.

Initially shooting at a photo studio could be afforded only by wealthy people, and the fact of shooting was a great event for the whole family. By the end of the XIX century with the development of photographic technology increases the number of portrait photographer's studio, there is a business card picture format that is available and has been widely disseminated. Since then, the small picture format appears on the pages of a family album.

The exhibition presents anonymous stories from life of famous Russian families. Such archives store the memory of fates of generations and are characteristics of its time.