1231
in 1839). The number of photo-amateurs went up rap-
idly in the 1880–1890s, which is connected with wide
spreading of brom-gelatine plates and simplifi cation of
the process of photography. Since 1890s lots of societies
of photo-amateurs of different levels emerged in Russia.
By 1917 they amounted to over a hundred.
Many of the amateurs were also keen on music,
painting, literature, which had an impact on their cre-
ative work as photographers and formed the basis for a
homogeneous cultural environment of the nation.
One of the fi rst and the most respected photo-ama-
teurs was Ivan Nostits (1824–1905), count and lieu-
tenant general. He started to go in for photography in
1839; he later made photo-portraits of the Emperor’s
family, ships, landscapes, architectural monuments.
In 1859 he made the photographic portrait of the fa-
mous prisoner, the Chechen imam Shamil. He tested
photo-apparatus and published the results of his re-
search works in special journals. In 1896 he issued an
album “Photographs by count Nostits.” The earnings
he donated to the fund of the Penkov orphanage in
Yekaterinaslav region.
The problems of photography were the topic of
several works by an outstanding Russian scientist and
evolutionist Kliment Timiryasev (1843–1920). He drew
parallel between photography and the process going on
in leaves o plants. Besides he was among the fi rst ones to
realize how important foe physiology was the invention
made by Hermann Wilhelm Vogel—his optical sensibili-
zators. Timiryasev used to say that the most fascinating
photo-process is the decomposition of carbon dioxide
and the formation organics in the plants under light and
the sensiblizator—chlorophyll. The scientist was also
a passionate photo-amateur, he was knowledgeable in
the theoretical as well as in practical achievements of
photography. He pictured landscapes and was a master
of the genre. By the best of his works he proved that
photography is an art.
Among Russian photo-amateurs Alexei Mazur-
in(1846–?) is most widely known in Europe. In 1890s
his works were published in journals of Germany, Great
Britain and other countries. He was one of the Russian
pioneers of pictorialism, the leading trend in photogra-
phy on the verge of the 20th century. He learned how to
perform positive printing, got acquainted with the gum
dichromate and the pigment method.
There were women photo-amateurs, for instance
Natalia Nordman-Severova (1863–1914), the wife of a
famous Russian artist Iliya Repin. She was the head of
the Ladies’ photographic society. Her amateur photo-
graphs were used by Repin in creating the great painting
“The State Council.”
Leo Tolstoy’s wife Sophia was an amateur photo-
grapher, so she made a photographic chronicle of the
writer’s life.
The thing that contributed to the spreading of knowl-
edge of photography was the photo-periodicals. This
can be subdivided into issues of public photographic
organizations, independent editors, journals of trading
firms, non-photographic journals, which published
materials on photography.
The majority of articles tackled the technical prob-
lems of photography. The question of the artistic value of
photography was less widely discussed also there were
several declarative publications stating that photography
was a form of art.
The aesthetics of photography started to gain promi-
nence in the end of the 19th—the beginning of the 20th
century especially as soon as pictorialism spread in the
country.
Photography was fi rst used as an illustration by an
artist Vasili Timm (1820–1895), who published from
1851 to 1862 the so called “Russian Pictorial Gazette,”
although the photographs were copied by hand. In Rus-
sia there were photo-journals: “Svetopis” (Photography)
issued in 1858–1859s; “Fotograf” (Photographer) is-
sued in 1864–1866; “Fotografi cheskoje obozrenije”
(Photography review) issued in 1865–1870s.; the
“Fotograf” journal (1880–1884s) was an organ of the
fi fth department of the Emperor’s Russian Technical
Society (ERTS; there was also “Fotografi cheski Vest-
nik” (Photography Gazette) issued in 1888–1897s;
“Fotograf Ljubitjel” (Amateur photographer) issued in
1890–1909. The best artistic and theoretical journal,
“Fotografi cheski Vestnik” was a press organ of Russian
Photography society in Moscow in 1907–1918s. The
journals housed publications on new achievements of
photographic process, events in the life of Russian and
foreign photography, reviews on photographic literature,
information on exhibitions and other important things.
The journals not only unifi ed the Russian photographers,
they also kept society informed on culture-specifi c
questions.
In 1890s photography started to be actively used in
periodicals, which entailed the emergence of photog-
raphers oriented on making reports. The considerable
sums of money they got as honorariums allow them to
go in for this kind of photography.
The title of the king of report is best suited to Karl
Bulla (1853–1929). Together with his sons he made
photographs for journals and news-papers rendering the
events that were taking place in St. Petersburg. Over 100
thousand negatives made by the Bulla family refl ect the
way Russia lived in the end of the 19th—the beginning
of the 20th century. They did not lie in the advertisement
that ran as follows: “An experienced photographer-il-
lustrator, K.Bulla, St.Petersburg, Nevsky 48. Makes
photographs for illustrates on the current events. Makes
photography of anything you might need, anywhere,
feeling free in any surroundings be that a region, a build-