1228
he streamlined the method. This was the fi rst scientifi c
research of photography made in Russia.
Meanwhile, Hamel moved from London to France
and got acquainted with Daguerre. He sends to the Acad-
emy the description of daguerreotype method along with
the equipment necessary for making photos, including
the camera, before the sale of these things started. The
discussion devoted to this technology in the academy of
sciences was held on the 6th of September of 1839. In
1839–1841 Hamel recurrently sent to St. Petersburg new
photos, including those made by Isidore Niepce—these
were the views Louvre and other buildings. Later in 1850
Hamel received from Isidore Niepce the originals of
documents (168 in number) on the history of inventing
photography, which after Hamel’s death in 1862 were
transferred to the Academy Archive.
In Russia, like everywhere in the world, daguerreo-
types gained great popularity. The fi rst daguerreotypes
brought to Russia were exposed in shop-fronts and
attracted the interest the of public at large. In 1839 the
fi rst booklets by Nickolai Stepanov appeared describ-
ing the methods of Daguer and Talbot, the cameras,
and other necessary photographic equipment went on
sale. One of the fi rst photographic amateurs to appear
was Franz Teremin (1802–?), a lieutenant colonel of the
Ministry of Lines of Communication, was interested
in daguerreotypes, and made a photograph of the Isaac
Cathedral in St. Petersburg with 25 minutes time-expo-
sure in October 1839. In 1840s Count Alexei Bobrinski
made a photograph of the conservatory in his house in
St. Petersburg. In 1843 Sergey Levitski (1819–1898)
being on a trip made photographs of views of the Cau-
cus. In mid-1840s an unknown photographer recorded
the sculptures by Ivan Vitali before they were mounted
onto the facade of the Isaac Cathedral.
Since 1840s professional daguerreotype studios for
making portraitphotographs started to appear. The style
of these works was predetermined by the style of painted
miniatures, which were very popular at the time. The
latter was imitated in daguerreotypes decoration and in
by-hand colouring of the black and white photos. The
genre of photo-portraits formed the commercial basis
for future development of photography.
The fi rst professional daguerreotype specialists work-
ing in Russia came from abroad. All of them had already
worked in various cities of Europe. They were, Josef
Weninger from Wien, the Schneider brothers and Carl
Dautendey from Germany and among others.
Some of them set up permanent studios, while others
traveled round the country. For instance, D’Avignon
made several trips to far away cities of Russia in 1843–
45s. In 1845 he made photo-portraits of insurrectionists
against the emperor in December of 1825 who spent
their life banishment in the suburbs of Irkutsk in Sibe-
ria. As this information reached the Third Department
of the Emperor’s Offi ce (dealing with state crimes and
prisoners) the photographer was arrested for making
photographs of state criminals. Soon afterwards the
photographer was released, the daguerreotypes were
confi scated and destroyed and since then taking pho-
tographs of criminals was strictly prohibited. However
some of the daguerreotypes preserved by some miracle
are now part of the collection of the Historical museum.
Thus, the authorities estimated the documentary value
of photography very high right from the beginning.
Among the fi rst Russian professional photographers
one could name Alexei Grekov, who opened a studio in- He made and sold self-constructed daguerreotype
apparatus, he employed Boris Yakobi’s method for sil-
ver-plating copper and brass photo-plates. Such photo-
plates were cheaper than the ones completely made of
silver. At the meeting of Paris Academy of Sciences in
November of 1840 Arago made a report on his method
of producing photo-plates.
Most of the Russian professionals in daguerreotype
started to work in 1850s and by 1860s they fully replaced
the foreigners. Many of the Russian daguerreotype mas-
ters were graduates of the Emperor’s Academy of Fine
Arts, which produced high artistic value of the works.
The industry of the studio portrait actively developed
in Russia.
In 1850s the wet collodion photo-process started
to be widely used in Russia and soon enough it ousted
daguerreotype although this was the way people contin-
ued to call it: a daguerreotype on paper. In 1850s Andre
Disderi started to make cartes de visite, which made
this genre extremely popular with the public. It became
popular in Russia to have an album of photographic
family portraits.
In 1850 Andrei Denier (1820–1892), a graduate of
St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts opened his famous
studio. He became a true master of photo-portraying;
the artists Ivan Kramskoi and Petr Sokolov worked in
his studio for some time as retouchers. In 1865–1866s
Denier publishes photographic albums of portraits of
famous people (Russian writers, artists, scientists, etc.)
12 photographs in each and this was one of the fi rst pho-
tographic editions in Russia. The aesthetics of painting,
which was then applied to photography, called for a soft
optical image. In order to achieve it Denier worked out
an original technique of printing from two negatives of
different density. He patented this technique in 1873 for
three years. Recent researches made it clear that this
method had been employed by foreign photographers
earlier (which proves that Denier’s invention was not
the original) but nevertheless Russian photographers
keep calling it “Denier’s effect”and prominent Rus-
sian masters of photography, such as Sergei Levitski
(1819–1898), Andrei Karelin (1837–1906), used the
method successfully.