Museums and society: The exhibition “Crimea in photographs of 1880-1910s from the State Russian Museum collection” in Saint-Petersburg

The exhibition “Crimea in photographs of 1880-1910s from the State Russian Museum collection” from a series “Journey of the Russian Empire” is opened on February 3, 2016 in the Stroganoff Palace (the State Russian Museum, Saint-Petersburg).

For more than two centuries a unique historical-cultural and architectural heritage of the Crimean peninsula is included in the Russian world composition, and certainly in the context of the national culture. The obvious interest in the treasures of the Crimea emerged from the 1880s as the masters of photography Russian, actively and fruitfully in the local photo shop of Yalta and Sevastopol, as well as to come to Crimea on behalf of scientific societies or in archaeological expeditions. Going on a long or short trip to the peninsula, professionals and amateurs are regularly carried out shooting and man-made attractions of Natural Crimean land. Photographic development of Crimea continued at the beginning of the XX century and was largely due to the rapid development of many resorts that has successfully popularized the species postcard. 

The exhibition at the State Russian Museum presents viewers the unique historical artistic photographs that represent different kinds of genres, formats and techniques of shooting. A special place in the exhibition belongs to the complex imagery of the outstanding Russian photographer Ivan Fedorovich Barshchevsky (1851-1948), who visited Crimea in 1888 in the expedition of the Imperial Moscow Archaeological Society and picturesque views depicting Bakhchisarai and its surroundings.

By walking in the Crimea, the Russian Museum opens a series of photographic retrospective exhibitions "Journey of the Russian Empire", first showing in this context and such a scale domestic product of photography from its collection.