494
diffi cult to steer a middle course” between literal and
stilted transliteration and freer interpretation which
risked traducing the author’s intent. He rose to the chal-
lenge both in translations from German and from French,
publishing successively two key texts on the origins of
photography: Fouqué’s work on Niépce La Vérité sur
l’invention de la photographie (The Truth Concerning
the Invention of Photography) in 1935 and Potonniée’s
Histoire de la découverte de la photographie (History
of the Discovery of Photography) a year later. Epstean’s
manages to respect the source texts while rendering
them in readable English. Integrity of another kind was
required of him in his fi nal translation, that of Erich
Stenger’s Die Photographie in Kultur und Technik: ihre
Geschichte während hundert Jahren (The History of
Photography: its Relation to Civilization and Practice).
He steered it through the press in 1939, a year after the
German original, in the teeth of mounting opposition,
not least from the American publishers. Epstean was a
proponent of the universality of scholarship, and placed
his personal commitment above political antipathies. As
a concession to Anglo-American sensitivities, the preface
to the German edition by Heinrich Hoffman was omitted,
but otherwise the source text remained unaltered.
Epstean’s contribution to scholarship was recognised
in his lifetime with the award of the Davanne medal
by the Société française de photographie and honorary
fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. After his
death, Epstean’s archive was turned over to Columbia
University library. It contains material relating to the
acquisition and donations of his books, typescripts and
offprints of his articles and speeches as well as the type-
script and galley proofs of the Eder translation.
Steven F. JosephBibliography
Edward Epstean was born in Bohemia on 19 September- He emigrated to the USA in 1888 and received
his naturalisation papers fi ve years later. In 1889 he
went to work for the electrotyping fi rm of Hopkins &
Blaut, founding their photoengraving department in - In 1898 Epstean set up, with H.L. Walker, the
Walker Engraving Company, incorporated in 1928, of
which he became director and treasurer. Epstean married
Josephine A. Kupfer (died 1942) in 1890. Epstean died
at his home in New York City on 7 August 1945.
Further Reading
A Catalogue of the Epstean Collection on the History and Science
of Photography and its Applications Especially to the Graphic
Arts; with an Appreciation and Bibliography of Edward Ep-
stean by Beaumont Newhall, Pawlet, Vermont: Helios, 1972.
(Reprint of: original edition, New York: Columbia University
Press, 1937, Authors and Short Title Index, 1938; Accessions
May 1938–December 1941—with Addenda 1942, 1942)ERMAKOV, DMITRI (c. 1845–c. 1916)
Chronicler of the CaucasusErmakov was born between 1845 and 1848 in Tbilisi,
the son of Ludwig Cambaggio, an Italian architect, and
a Georgian mother of Austrian descent, who was a noted
pianist. She remarried with one Ermakov, whose name
her son Dmitri took.
Among the schools where Ermakov as a young man
received training was the Military Topographic Acad-
emy at Ananuri, at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains,
102 kilometers north of Tbilisi on the Georgian Military
Highway. In Ermakov’s estate various albums are to be
found with photographs of this military highway and a
number of views on and around this route. Most likely
Ermakov took his fi rst steps toward his future profession
as photographer while at this academy. By that time
every military academy in Europe had its photographic
department, to serve the needs of cartography and for
the production of maps and topographic fi les. Moreover,
experiments were being done at these institutions with
new photomechanical reproduction techniques for the
production of map material. Photography was also found
extremely well suited for reconnaissance in confl ict
situations and regions.
Ermakov left the military school toward the end of
the 1860s. Shortly thereafter, around 1870, he opened
his own photographic business in Tbilisi, the city of his
birth and the capital of Russian-controlled Georgia. The
studio was located on the Dvortsovaya, a street where
various photography studios had been established for
many years, and which drew many visitors. As early
as 1846 a photography studio had been opened there,
operated by Henry Haupt and I. Aleksandrovski. The
photographers V. Khlamov and A. Roinashvili followed
in the ensuing years. Ivanitski also set up there in 1863.
Roinashvili was in fact the fi rst photographer of Geor-
gian extraction. He called his studio “Rembrandt,” a
good indication of his ambitions and the seriousness
with which he practiced his trade. It has been suggested
that Ermakov took over some of Ivanitski’s stock, par-
ticularly the many portraits of ethnic types, and also
stock from Roinashvili. Such fi les of negatives were,
after all, the most important business capital for photo-
graphic studios, and often remained in use for decades.
It is thus quite possible that Ermakov took over an exist-
ing studio, and/or all or part of an older inventory. That
was the accepted practice in this period, during which
professional photography studios were taking off in a
big way all over the world.
Several years after opening his studio Ermakov
became a member of the Société française de photog-
raphie (SFP) in Paris, the most prestigious photographic
association in Europe. Who had nominated Ermakov
for membership—there was after all a strict admissionsEPSTEAN, EDWARD
Hannavy_RT72353_C005.indd 494 7/5/2007 11:18:24 AM