Photographers and Publishers of the Nizhny Novgorod Land — the photographers and photographic studios of Nizhny Novgorod and its Governorate, from the first daguerreotypists of the 1840s to the 1930s, together with the publishers of postcards and view albums, the photographic series, the exhibitions, and the repositories where these pictures are kept today. The count begins on September 1, 1843: on that day Mikhail Titsner, an optician to the St. Petersburg court, received a "place for a daguerreotype" at the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka, and that date is regarded as the birthday of Nizhny Novgorod photography. The camera obscura weighed about seven kilograms in those days, a daguerreotype portrait came out the size of a snuffbox, and sitters had to pose for an hour or more[1].
Nizhny Novgorod Light-Writing
The first practitioners were outsiders: until 1854, Osip Peyshes, Karl Mashtser, Adolf Barro, and Ivan Aleksandrovsky kept their own "photographic booths" at the yarmarka, while the first photographic studio in the city itself was opened in 1859 by Nikolay Andreyevich Kozin, a serf of Prince Gruzinsky[1]. In 1860 Mikhail Nastyukov founded his own studio in Nizhny[2]; he kept a pavilion on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street and, for the duration of the yarmarka, a premises on its Photographic Row[3]. Both masters who made up the Nizhny Novgorod school — Andrey Karelin and Maksim Dmitriev — studied under Nastyukov[4]; the journal "Fotograf-lyubitel" (The Amateur Photographer) named them in 1908 among the best photographers in Russia[1].
Andrey Karelin, a graduate of the Academy of Arts, moved to Nizhny in 1869 and set up his own business. His 1870 album "Nizhny Novgorod" was hand-colored in watercolor by Ivan Shishkin, and at the 1876 Edinburgh exhibition, where a jury viewed six thousand prints shown without the authors' names, it picked two works for the gold medal — both turned out to be Karelin's[5]. Maksim Dmitriev entered Nastyukov's Moscow studio at the age of fifteen, and on February 7, 1886, received permission to open his own studio in Nizhny, where he worked for more than forty years[6]. His album "The Crop-Failure Year 1891–1892 in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate" (1893) is considered the starting point of Russian documentary photojournalism[7]; in 1894 and 1903 he photographed the Volga for a guidebook of the Ministry of Railways[8].
Dozens of studios worked alongside the masters — on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, Osypnaya, and Varvarka Streets, in Kanavino, at the Yarmarka, and in Sormovo; photographers also kept establishments in the district towns — Ardatov, Arzamas, Vasilsursk, Vyksa, Gorodets, Kulebaki, Lukoyanov, Lyskovo, Pavlovo, and Pochinki[3]. Publishing grew alongside photography: by 1891 Dmitriev had set up his own phototype press and was issuing numbered postcards[6] — about 860 of them in all[9]; postcard series were published by the bookseller V. I. Breev[10], and for the 1896 exhibition the educator Vasily Vinogradov brought out the "Artistic Album of Nizhny Novgorod and the Yarmarka," most of whose views had been shot specially by Karelin[11].
In 1929 Dmitriev's photography studio was transferred to the Children's Labor Commission, and its owner became a salaried employee there[9]. In 1931 an independent photo archive was created in the governorate, holding over 400 negatives, 500 positives, and 700 photographic prints from the pre-Soviet period[1], and in 1933 a large collection of Dmitriev's negatives was confiscated on the orders of the chairman of the regional archive bureau[12]. Today the photographs are held by the Regional Archive of Audiovisual Documentation, whose list of authors numbers about 140 names[1], the Russian Museum of Photography, and the Nizhny Novgorod Museum-Reserve. The turning point of the era is the photojournalist Nison Kapelyush (1910–1973), who in 1927, at the age of sixteen, photographed Mayakovsky in Nizhny and whose name in Nizhny Novgorod photography is placed after Karelin and Dmitriev[13]. Below, the photographers and publishers are listed by group: the first studios, the two masters, city and district studios, amateurs, publishers, series and albums, exhibitions, and repositories.
The first "light-painters": the daguerreotype at the Yarmarka and the first studios
Nizhny Novgorod photography began at the Yarmarka (the annual trade fair) and with visiting masters: after Titsner, who in 1843 was granted a spot for a daguerreotype, Osip Peyshes, Karl Mashtser, Adolf Barro, and Ivan Aleksandrovsky kept their own "photographic booths" there until 1854[1]. The Yarmarka's Photographic Row remained a place of seasonal work later on as well: pavilions there were kept by Baptiste Barro and Mikhail Nastyukov, both of whom also had studios on Bolshaya Pokrovka[3].
The first permanent studio in the city was opened in 1859 by Nikolay Andreyevich Kozin, a serf of Prince Gruzinsky; not a single one of his works survives in Nizhny Novgorod archives or museums, and his biography is unknown[1]. Nastyukov, who had been taking photographs since 1858, founded a studio in Nizhny in 1860, and another in Moscow in 1862; in 1866–1867 he published the album "Views of Places along the Volga River from Tver to Kazan"[2], and in 1875 the album "Views of the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka. August 8–15, 1875"[14].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mikhail Titsner | 1843 | A court optician from St. Petersburg who received a "place for a daguerreotype" at the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka on September 1, 1843; this day is considered the birthday of Nizhny Novgorod photography. |
| Baptiste Barraud | 1850s–1870s | A photographer who kept a studio on Bolshaya Pokrovka and in the Photographic Row of the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka; he also worked in Moscow. |
| Nikolay Andreyevich Kozin | 1859 | A serf of Prince Gruzinsky who in 1859 opened the first photographic studio in Nizhny Novgorod proper. |
| Mikhail Petrovich Nastyukov | photographing from 1858; studio in Nizhny Novgorod from 1860 | A photographer who opened a photographic studio in Nizhny Novgorod in 1860 (and in Moscow in 1862), kept a pavilion on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya and in the Photographic Row of the yarmarka, and trained Karelin and Dmitriev. |
Masters of the Nizhny Novgorod School: Karelin and Dmitriev
Karelin received the title of photographer of the Imperial Academy of Arts; with his active participation, art exhibitions were held regularly in the city from 1886, and he was among the founders of the Art and History Museum, which opened in 1896[5]. He printed from two glass negatives — a weak one and a stronger one — achieving an extraordinary softness of the print[12]. On the house at 8 Varvarskaya Street, where he lived and worked in 1887–1906, a cast memorial plaque by O. Lisenkov was installed in 1992[15].
Dmitriev first came to Nizhny in 1874 to work in Nastyukov's pavilion at the Yarmarka[12], in 1877 he served here in D. Leybovsky's studio, then as a laboratory assistant for Karelin, and in October 1881 he opened a photography studio on Bolshaya Pokrovka with honorary citizen L. Galin, but left five or six months later over disagreements with his partner[6]. In 1892 he received a gold medal at the Paris exhibition for the photograph "Convicts at Construction Work"[12], and in January 1899, on the recommendation of P. P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky and A. V. Grigoryev, he was elected a full member of the Russian Geographical Society[8]. A plaque on the house at 9 Piskunov Street, unveiled on August 8, 1993, states that he lived and worked here from 1886 to 1940[7].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Karelin Andrey Osipovich | 1837–1906; in Nizhny Novgorod from 1869 | A painter and photographer who in 1866 (according to other sources, in 1869) opened a studio in Nizhny Novgorod called "Photography and Painting of the Artist Karelin." At the Edinburgh exhibition of 1876, the jury selected two works for the gold medal from six thousand photographs shown without the authors' names — both turned out to be his. |
| Dmitriev Maxim Petrovich | 1858–1948; his own studio on Osypnaya Street in 1886–1940 | A student of Karelin, who on February 7, 1886 received permission to open his own photography studio on Osypnaya Street (now 9 Piskunov Street) and worked in that house until 1940. He photographed the Volga from its source to its mouth and printed albums and postcards at his own phototype press. |
Photographers and Studios of Nizhny Novgorod
The street of photographers was Bolshaya Pokrovka together with the adjoining Osypnaya. In the Kurepin house on Pokrovskaya, V. G. Fedorov, N. M. Kuzaev, and M. Gagaev together with A. Samarin worked at various times; the latter pair also had a branch in Kanavino, on 2nd Line. D. Leybovsky kept an establishment in his own house on Varvarka, opposite the Institute of Emperor Alexander II, and Anna Gorodetskaya kept one in her own house on the same street[3]. The medical-police committee used the services of the city photographers P. A. Spirin and K. A. Bulygin[1].
Former Moscow guild craftsman Mikhail Khripkov settled in Nizhny Novgorod in 1901, opened the "Universal Photography" studio, and set up production of scenic postcards and slides for the "magic lantern." Gagaev received a gold medal at the 1907 Madrid exhibition, and in January 1905 Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov opened a photography studio at 20 Bolshaya Pokrovka; after 1918 he became the first Nizhny Novgorod emissary of the section for museum affairs and the protection of monuments of art and antiquity[12].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| David Simkhovich Leybovsky | 1870s–1890s | A photographer who kept a studio in his own house on Varvarka, opposite the Institute of Emperor Alexander II; Maxim Dmitriev began his career in his studio in 1877. |
| Yuly Leopoldovich Grossman | 1880s | A photographer who kept a studio in Nizhny Novgorod in the 1880s. |
| Anton Andreevich Choisy | 1880s | Owner of the "American Photography" studio, who worked in Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, and Simbirsk. |
| Lev Lvovich Galin | 1880s–1890s | An honorary citizen who, in October 1881, together with Maxim Dmitriev opened a photography studio on Bolshaya Pokrovka in the house of the merchant Mokeev, next to the Lopashov Hotel; Dmitriev left him after five or six months. |
| Anna Mikhailovna Gorodetskaya | 1890s | The photographer Anna Mikhailovna Gorodetskaya (née Efimova), who kept a studio in her own house on Varvarka. |
| Konstantin Arkhipovich Bulygin | 1890s | A photographer with a studio at 12 Bolshaya Pokrovskaya, whose services were used by the Nizhny Novgorod medical-police committee. |
| Pavel Spirin | late 19th – early 20th century | A city photographer whose services were used by the Nizhny Novgorod medical-police committee. |
| M. T. Kudrin | 1890s–1900s | A photographer with a studio on Osypnaya Street in the Chesnokov house and a branch in Sormovo on Sadovaya Street, in the Berdnikov house. |
| Vasily Alekseevich Shalimov | 1890s–1900s | A photographer who kept a studio at 15 Osypnaya Street. |
| Adam Benediktovich Lyubatynsky | 1890s–1900s | A photographer who kept studios on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya and on Osypnaya Street. |
| Alexander Vladimirovich Tepfer | late 1890s–1900s | A photographer who kept a studio at 46 Bolshaya Pokrovka. |
| Vasily Gerasimovich Fyodorov | 1890s–1900s | A photographer who kept a studio on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya in the Kurepin house. |
| Nikolay Matveevich Kuzaev | 1900s–1920s | A photographer who kept a studio on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya in the Kurepin house; his work is held by the Regional Archive of Audiovisual Documentation. |
| Mikhail Nikolaevich Gagaev | 1900s–1920s | A photographer who, together with A. N. Samarin, kept a studio on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya in the Kurepin house and in Kanavino on 2nd Liniya; he also had a studio in Torzhok, on Vozdvizhenskaya Square. |
| Andrey Nikolaevich Samarin | 1900s–1920s | A photographer who kept a studio in Kanavino on 2nd Liniya in the Burov house, for a time together with M. N. Gagaev. |
| Mikhail Alexandrovich Khripkov | 1900s–1910s | Founder of the Nizhny Novgorod partnership "Universal Photography," with pavilions on Osharskaya Street, at the Yarmarka, and in Sormovo, which produced scenic postcards and slides for the "magic lantern." |
| I. Ivanov (photographer) | late 19th – early 20th century | A photographer with a studio at 20 Bolshaya Pokrovka; his original positives, together with the works of Karelin, Dmitriev, Gagaev, Khripkov, and Samarin, became part of a collection purchased for the Russian Museum of Photography in 2020. |
| "Svetopis" Partnership | 1900s–1910s | A Nizhny Novgorod photography studio with a branch in Sormovo. |
Sormovo and the District Towns
Nizhny Novgorod photo studios kept branches in Sormovo: M. T. Kudrin on Sadovaya Street in the Berdnikov house, the "Svetopis" partnership, and Khripkov's "Universal Photography" on Moskovskaya Street in the Sokolov house. L. Chinsky also worked here; his photograph "Brothers" is dated 1908[16].
In Arzamas, around 1870, a studio pavilion was opened by the Sazhins, natives of Bolshoe Murashkino: according to family tradition, they had belonged to the Counts Uvarov, and one of them was sent to study photography in Paris and was granted his freedom upon his return; a whole dynasty of photographers descended from this pavilion[17]. In Lyskovo, Fyodor Afanasyevich Fomin worked, and in Gorodets, Leonty Yezhov and Fyodor Kirillovich Kabanov[3]; D. M. Lapkin photographed the streets of the selo of Bogorodskoye, and his view of Aleshkovskaya Street from 1900–1918 is held by the Bogorodsk Historical Museum[18].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Leon Romualdovich Chinsky | 1900s–1910s | A photographer who worked in Sormovo in the early 20th century; he is the author of the 1908 photograph "Brothers". |
| Fyodor Afanasyevich Fomin | 1900s–1920 | A photographer who worked in Lyskovo; in the 1880s–1890s he photographed the Makaryev Monastery. |
| Sazhin Photographic Pavilion in Arzamas | from the 1870s | A pavilion opened in Arzamas around 1870 by natives of Bolshoe Murashkino — according to family tradition, serfs of the Counts Uvarov; one of them was sent to study photography in Paris and was granted his freedom upon his return. |
| D. M. Lapkin | 1890s–1910s | A photographer of the selo of Bogorodskoye, whose photographs of its streets and churches from the 1900s–1910s are held by the Bogorodsk Historical Museum. |
Amateurs, Local Historians, and Press Photographers
Alongside the professionals, amateurs took photographs as well. Nikolay Aleksandrovich Smirnov, director of the Nizhny Novgorod Public Bank, and his son Dmitry, the future local historian and chronicler of everyday life (1891–1980), photographed views of the city and the Yarmarka, festivals, and family life, including with a stereo camera[19]; the Russian Museum of Photography classes D. N. Smirnov's negatives and V. A. Zeveke's early 20th-century glass negatives among its especially valuable holdings[20]. Vasily Alfonsovich Zeveke (1878–1941), the son of a well-known shipowner, began photographing views of Nizhny Novgorod as a gymnasium student and later became a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Photographic Society[21].
Nison Kapelyush received a Kodak as a gift at the age of thirteen, became a staff member of the newspaper Molodaya Rat three years later, and for more than four decades, from the late 1920s, photographed for city and national publications; his photo archive comprises tens of thousands of negatives[13].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Dmitry Nikolayevich Smirnov | 1891–1980 | A Nizhny Novgorod chronicler of everyday life and local historian who, together with his father, N. A. Smirnov, photographed city and Yarmarka views, notable events, holidays, and family life at the turn of the 20th century; the Russian Museum of Photography classes the glass and film negatives he shot among its especially valuable holdings. |
| Nikolay Aleksandrovich Smirnov | 1900s | Director of the Nizhny Novgorod Public Bank, who took up photography together with his son, the future chronicler D. N. Smirnov. |
| V. A. Zeveke | 1900s–1910s | A shipbuilding engineer from a Nizhny Novgorod shipowner's family who photographed views of Nizhny Novgorod from his gymnasium years and later became a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Photographic Society; his glass negatives from the early 20th century, donated by his son to the Russian Museum of Photography in 2007, are classed by the museum among its especially valuable holdings. |
| Nison Mikhailovich Kapelyush | 1910–1973 | A Nizhny Novgorod press photographer who, as a teenager, photographed Mayakovsky during his visit to Nizhny in 1927 and for more than four decades, from the late 1920s, photographed for city newspapers. |
Publishers of Postcards and Albums
Dmitriev's phototype studio issued postcards in series: Nizhny Novgorod, the Volga Collection, the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka, the 1896 exhibition, Sarov Hermitage, Diveevo, Zavolzhye, and portraits of writers and actors; other publishers reprinted them, and after 1929 the postcards came out on poor-quality paper with a DTK stamp in the corner[9]. As early as 1891, Dmitriev had to complain to the Imperial Russian Technical Society about piracy — his photographs were being reprinted by the Moscow typolithography "I. Pashkov" and the firm "V. De-Kroz & Co." in an album-guidebook to the Volga[6].
Vasily Breev moved to Nizhny in 1881, sold books and stationery from 1894, and in 1904–1914 published postcard series titled "Nizhny Novgorod and Its Environs," "The Volga and the Volga Region," and "In Memory of the 300th Anniversary of the Feat of the Nizhny Novgorod Militia"; for the postcards he partly used Karelin's negatives[10]. A. I. Popov's bookshop on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street issued, for the 1896 exhibition, an album of 21 views based on photographs by the Moscow firm "Scherer, Nabholz & Co.," which photographed fairs and exhibitions[22]; Vinogradov's "Art Album" was printed by the S. N. Kazachkov typolithography shop[23].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| M. P. Dmitriev's Phototype Studio | late 19th century — 1920s | Dmitriev's phototype workshop on the ground floor of a house on Osypnaya Street (now the Russian Museum of Photography), where from the late 19th century he printed albums and postcards from his own photographs — about 860 postcards, arranged in thematic series; in 1929 the establishment was handed over to the Children's Labor Commission, and the postcards continued to appear bearing the DTK stamp. |
| Breev Vasily Ivanovich | 1863 — not earlier than 1928; postcards of 1904–1914 | A Nizhny Novgorod bookseller who in 1904–1914 published postcards in the series "Nizhny Novgorod and Its Environs," "The Volga and the Volga Region," and "In Memory of the 300th Anniversary of the Feat of the Nizhny Novgorod Militia." |
| Vinogradov Vasily Ivanovich | 1856–1902 | A Nizhny Novgorod teacher, publicist, and local historian who published, for the All-Russian Exhibition of 1896, the "Art Album of Nizhny Novgorod and the Fair" in two installments, with photographs mainly by A. O. Karelin. |
| Photographic firm "Scherer, Nabholz & Co." | exhibition of 1896; Nizhny Novgorod postcards of the 1900s–1910s | A Moscow photographic and phototype firm that photographed the All-Russian Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod — 21 of its photographs were included in the album of A. I. Popov's Nizhny Novgorod bookshop — and which at this exhibition received, for the third time, the right to place the state coat of arms on its letterheads. |
Photographic series and albums
Karelin issued several installments of the "Artistic Album of Photographs from Life" in the 1870s and 1880s: narrative scenes, landscapes, ethnographic and architectural photography, pictures of relatives, and numerous self-portraits, printed on albumen paper and toned in sepia[24].
Dmitriev worked in series: "Volga Barge Haulers," "Semyonov Spoon Carvers," "Lukoyanov Peasants," and workers of Sormovo, Vyksa, and Kulebaki; he photographed the Yarmarka and the Exhibition of 1896, every visit of Nicholas II to the city, the fading frescoes of the Makaryev Monastery, Sarov and Diveevo, and for the sake of an album on the famine of 1891–1892 he traveled through nearly all the uyezds of the governorate[12]. The annotated catalog of his "Volga Collection," published in 2015, lists 989 items[8], while the "Yarmarka" series at the Russian Museum of Photography consists of 28 positives measuring 18 × 24 cm[20].
| Title | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Karelin's 1870 Album "Nizhny Novgorod" | 1870 | An album of views of the city, with photographs hand-colored in watercolor by Ivan Shishkin; it was presented to Emperor Alexander II in 1870. |
| Artistic Album of Photographs from Life | 1870s–1880s | An album that Karelin issued in several installments in the 1870s and 1880s: genre scenes, landscapes, ethnographic and architectural photography, family pictures, and many self-portraits — albumen prints toned in sepia. |
| Album "The Crop-Failure Year of 1891–1892 in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate" | 1891–1893 | An album of 51 collotype plates that Dmitriev published in 1893 at his own collotype workshop, based on photographs of the famine year in the governorate's uyezds: public canteens, the distribution of bread to peasants, public works, and villages of the Sergach, Lukoyanov, and Knyaginino uyezds. |
| Volga Collection by M. P. Dmitriev | 1894–1903 | Photographs of Volga towns for an illustrated guidebook commissioned by the Ministry of Transport: in 1894 Dmitriev traveled by the steamer Olga from Rybinsk to Astrakhan, and in 1903 from the river's source to Nizhny Novgorod. |
| Artistic Album of Nizhny Novgorod and the Yarmarka | 1896 | An album in two installments, published by V. I. Vinogradov for the 1896 exhibition: autotypes by Otto Renard from photographs mainly by A. O. Karelin, as well as by M. P. Dmitriev, printed at S. N. Kazachkov's lithographic press in Nizhny Novgorod. |
| The 1896 All-Russian Exhibition in Dmitriev's Photographs | 1896 | Photographs of the 16th All-Russian Exhibition of 1896: Dmitriev photographed the Imperial Pavilion, the central building, the machinery section, company pavilions, and the aeronautical park in flight on July 17–20. |
| The Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka in Photographs by M. P. Dmitriev | A series of photographs of the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka, of which the Russian Museum of Photography holds 28 original positives by Dmitriev measuring 18 × 24 cm; views of the Yarmarka were also distributed as postcards from his collotype workshop. | |
| Volga Types and Scenes | 1900s | A series of photographic postcards by Dmitriev with genre portraits of Volga residents; the Multimedia Art Museum holds its plate "A Peasant of Nizhny Novgorod Governorate" and dates it to 1900–1908. |
| M. P. Dmitriev's Trans-Volga Craftsmen | 1897 | Dmitriev's 1897 series on the spoon-making trade of Semyonov Uyezd: the plate "Spoon Makers of Semyonov Uyezd at Work" from it is held by the Nizhny Novgorod Museum-Reserve; his photograph "Spoon Production" in the village of Deyanovo is dated to the same year, 1897. |
Societies, Exhibitions, and Pavilions
Nizhny Novgorod masters began exhibiting early. In 1876, Karelin received a gold medal in Edinburgh, as well as medals at the exhibition of the French Photographic Society in Paris and at the World's Fair in Philadelphia[5]. Dmitriev's photographs first appeared at the 1889 exhibitions in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Odessa, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of photography ("light-writing")[12]; in the same year, he received a silver medal at an exhibition in Paris[6].
In the city itself, the seasonal workplace of photographers was the Yarmarka's Photographic Row[3]. The Nizhny Novgorod Photographic Society was active — V. A. Zeveke became a member[21], while Dmitriev was a full member of the Nizhny Novgorod Circle of Amateurs of Physics and Astronomy[6]. An enormous number of photographs of the Yarmarka and the 1896 exhibition have survived[12].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Nizhny Novgorod Society of Art Lovers | 1901–1916 | The first association of artists in Nizhny Novgorod, founded on February 12, 1901; its founders included the photographers A. O. Karelin and M. P. Dmitriev, and the society held exhibitions and creative evenings every year. |
| Nizhny Novgorod Governorate Scholarly Archival Commission | 1887–1918 | A scholarly society for which, beginning in 1888, Dmitriev photographed historic monuments of the Volga region. |
| M. P. Dmitriev's Photography Pavilion at the 1896 Exhibition | 1896 | A separate photography pavilion built by Dmitriev at the 16th All-Russian Exhibition of 1896, in front of the Far North pavilion, not far from the art section; according to the Russian Museum of Photography, it displayed the highly successful photographs of the "Volga Region" series, while the 1896 "Russian Photographic Journal" wrote that the pavilion merely took orders, and that views of the exhibition and the Volga were laid out in Dmitriev's large display case in the building of Section X. |
| All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 | 1896 | An exhibition for which Dmitriev and the Moscow firm "Scherer, Nabholz & Co." took photographs, and at which Dmitriev had his own photography pavilion. |
Where the Photographs Are Held: Museums and Archives
In the late 19th century, the task of collecting the governorate's documents was begun by the Governorate Scholarly Archival Commission; on January 1, 1918, an Archive of the Revolution was created, in 1931 an independent photographic archive, and on December 11, 2002, the Archive of Audiovisual Documentation of Nizhny Novgorod Region. A significant part of its collection, which exceeded 240,000 items in 2013, consists of the Dmitriev fund; it also holds works by Bulla, Barraud, Zeveke, Nastyukov, Leibovsky, Gagaev, Samarin, Kuzaev, Khripkov, and Kapelyush[1].
The Russian Museum of Photography stands on the former Osypnaya Street, now Piskunova Street, in the building where Dmitriev's phototype workshop operated[9]; as of December 25, 2023, its holdings number 212,702 items. At the end of 2020, the regional Ministry of Culture purchased for the museum 256 original positive prints from the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Karelin, Dmitriev, I. Ivanov, M. Gagaev, M. Khripkov, and A. Samarin, and among the especially valuable items is Dmitriev's folding travel camera for 45 × 55 cm glass negatives[20]. The Karelin collection in the Nizhny Novgorod Museum-Reserve comprises more than 1,500 items: in 1929 his youngest son Rafail transferred most of his father's collection to the regional museum[5]. The ROSFOTO exhibition in St. Petersburg, which ran until February 15, 2026, showed for the first time there more than three hundred original works by the two masters[4].
| Name | Years | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Russian Museum of Photography | since 1992 | The first photography museum in Russia, founded in 1992 in the house on Piskunova Street where Karelin and Dmitriev worked; as of December 25, 2023, its holdings number 212,702 items. |
| State Archive of Audiovisual Documentation of the Nizhny Novgorod Region | photo archive since 1931; independent archive since 2003 | An archive at 63 Svobody Street, whose holdings trace back to the photo archive of the Nizhny Novgorod Territorial Executive Committee of 1931, which received the pre-revolutionary collections of Karelin and Dmitriev; it became an independent archive in 2003, and as of January 1, 2020, its holdings number 194,441 items from the late 19th to early 21st centuries. |
| Nizhny Novgorod State Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve | since 1958 (merger) | A museum-reserve housing the collection of Andrey Karelin — his photographs, antiquities, and folk costume, more than 1,500 items, most of which was transferred to the regional museum in 1929 by the photographer's son Rafail; from the holdings of the museum-reserve and ROSFOTO, the exhibition "Andrey Karelin and Maxim Dmitriev: Masters of Light Painting from Nizhny Novgorod" was shown in St. Petersburg from December 12, 2025, to February 15, 2026. |
| Gorky State Museum | A museum whose Literary Museum exhibition featured photographs by Karelin and Dmitriev: Old Believer hermitages, city squares and streets, and the people of that time. |
Sources
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — From Titsner to Kapelyush (August 22, 2013) (archive)
- russiahistory.ru — History of Photography. Mikhail Petrovich Nastyukov (archive)
- rusalbom.ru — The Great Russian Album — Photographers and Photo Studios of Pre-Revolutionary Russia (archive)
- web.archive.org — ROSFOTO — Andrey Karelin and Maksim Dmitriev — Masters of Light Painting from Nizhny Novgorod (from the Collection of the Nizhny Novgorod Museum-Reserve) (archive)
- ngiamz.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Museum-Reserve — Andrey Osipovich Karelin: The NGIAMZ Photograph Collection (archive)
- mrf.museumart.ru — Multimedia Art Museum — Maksim Petrovich Dmitriev (archive)
- opentextnn.ru — B. S. Izvekov, A. V. Kessel. Memorial Plaques of Nizhny Novgorod — Dmitriev M. P. (1858–1948). 9 Piskunova Street (archive)
- archives.nobl.ru — Archive of Audiovisual Documentation of Nizhny Novgorod Region — "The Volga Collection of M. P. Dmitriev": An Annotated Thematic List of Photographic Documents (2015)
- web.archive.org — Museums of Russia — Photographic Postcards by M. P. Dmitriev (Exhibition of the Russian Museum of Photography, 2008) (archive)
- web.archive.org — Vasily Ivanovich Breev (archive)
- posredi.ru — "In the Middle of Russia" — The First Printed Photo Album of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- fotomuseum.nnov.ru — Russian Museum of Photography — Museum Tour (archive)
- rgub.ru — Russian State Library for Youth — Exhibition of Nison Kapelyush — Photo Chronicler of the Great Patriotic War (archive)
- Living in Nizhny — Exhibition of the Russian Museum of Photography Collection Presented at the Exhibition Center of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- opentextnn.ru — B. S. Izvekov, A. V. Kessel. Memorial Plaques of Nizhny Novgorod — Karelin A. O. (1837–1906). 8 Varvarskaya Street (archive)
- inbio.livejournal.com — Photographers and Photo Studios in Pre-Revolutionary Sormovo (archive)
- museum-murom.ru — Murom Museum of History and Art — A. R. Komlev. The Murom Photographer Nikolay Sazhin (archive)
- In the City of N — Bogorodsk in Nizhny Novgorod Region: History and Archival Photos of the Tanners' Town (archive)
- fotomuseum.nnov.ru — Russian Museum of Photography — Exhibition of Works by the Nizhny Novgorod Photographer and Chronicler of Everyday Life Dmitry Nikolayevich Smirnov, "Life and Daily Existence" (archive)
- fotomuseum.nnov.ru — Russian Museum of Photography — Information on the Museum's Collections
- names52.ru — Vasily Alfonsovich Zeveke (archive)
- kp.rusneb.ru — National Electronic Library "Book Monuments" — Views of the 1896 All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- prlib.ru — Presidential Library — Art Album of Nizhny Novgorod and the Yarmarka. Issue 1. Views of the City (archive)
- ar.culture.ru — Russian Museum of Photography — Art Album of Photographs from Life (archive)