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ing, be it in the day-time or at night.” The exactness of
a photographic report was socially relevant and more
convincing than a verbal description. That’s why the
public kept demanding for more and more photographic
information.
The 19th century is the time of emergence and main-
tenance of photography all over the world and in Russia
in particular. Besides it is the time when photography
gained the status of a form of art.
In the end of the 19th century and the beginning of
20th century (up to the revolution of 1917) there were
two trends for development of photography in Russia.
The bulk of photographers believed in the principles of
realistic photography, employing the latest achievements
of photographic technology. The proponents of the trend,
and Sergei Prokudin-Gorski most active among them,
called to stay documental and use natural colours. The
latter worked on a large project—a series of coloured
photographs of Russian sights. The results of the work
were used for studies as well as for research.
Another trend especially active in the beginning of
the 20th century was the pictorial photography. Within
the framework of this trend the photographers studied
the problems of creating an artistic image, worked on
such matters as composition and lighting. The photogra-
phy developed on the background of changing priorities
in Russian painting, These trends formed the basis for
the Soviet photography of the 1930s, which combined
expressive imagery and documental exactness.
Russia before the revolution of 1917 was integrated
into the world economy, politics and culture and carried
out one of the leading functions in the development of
the world. That is why Russia had a worthy position in
the global process of photography development.
Alexei Loginov
Further Reading
Horoshilov, P. and A. Loginov, The Masterpieces of the Pho-
tography from Private Collections. Russian Photography
1849–1918, /M., Punctum 2003, 176 pp.
Morozov, S., Artistic Photography, /M., Planet, 1986, 416 pp.
Rakchmanov, N. (ed.), Russian Photography, /M., Planeta, 1996,
344 pp.
Russische Photographie 1840–1940, Ars Nicolai GmbH., Berlin,
1993, 256 pp.
RUTHERFURD, LEWIS MORRIS
(1816–1892)
He was born in New York City and graduated in Laws
from Williams University in 1834. Between 1837 and
1849 he practiced as a lawyer. He was a passionate
amateur in astronomy, and has a special place in both
histories of photography and astronomy as a pioneer of
the photography as a tool of the astronomer. The begin-
ning of spectroscopy (1830) and photography (1839)
opened the horizon of astronomy, that traditionally
studied the position of the stars. From that moment a
new branch was inaugurated, the physical astronomy,
or more commonly known as astrophysics.
With this starting point, chemists and physists began
to point instruments at the stars searching for new data
and the photography was called to play a fundamental
role, when allowing a faithful, reliable and lasting regis-
try of the celestial phenomena. Today this period of as-
tronomy is known as “New Astronomy”; and Rutherfurd
was one of its pioneers, together with Norman Lockyer
(1836–1920) in England, Jules Janssen (1824–1907) in
France, father Angelo Secchi (1818–1878) in Italy and
Hermann W. Vogel (1834–1898) in Germany. Ruther-
furd developed special lenses, altogether with the opti-
cian and daguerreotypist Henry Fitz. This allowed to
focus on the wavelengths involved in the photochemical
process of the humid collodion plates, that is the blue,
the violet and the ultraviolet.
In 1860 he established in New York an observatory
with a great equatorial refractor telescope, with an
objective of 33 cm of diameter and a camera for humid
colodion plates. He obtained photographic images of the
solar disc, as well as of the Moon, some planets, stars
and constellations. His images of the Moon became fa-
mous at the Universal Exhibition of Paris, in 1867. Some
were reproduced in stereoscopy and in woodburytype, il-
lustrating treatises of astronomy or photography (Flam-
marion, 1878 and Vogel, 1875) and a few in albumen
paper, in great size—approx. 42 cm × 57cm—which
were distributed to the main scientifi c centers and to
celebrities and astronomers of the world.
When the American astronomer Benjamin A. Gould
(1824–1896) accepted the invitation of the President of
Argentina, Domingo F. Sarmiento to direct an observa-
tory in the mediterranean city of Cordoba, Argentina,
Rutherfurd trained the future Gould’ assistant, a German
scientist, Carl Schultz-Sellack to obtain photographs
with his system, and gave Gould the fi rst compound lens
that were used in that observatory. (Ferrari, 2001).
Rutherfurd donated his instruments and photographs
to the University of Columbia, of which he was a bene-
factor (1858–84).
Roberto FerrariReferences
The South Carolinian Library Archive, (Document 10437) Letter
from Leiber to Rutherfurd, Nov. 2nd, 1868.
Ferrari, Roberto A., Carl Schultz-Sellack (1844–1879) y los orí-
genes de la fotografía astronómica en la Argentina. In: Saber y
Tiempo (Buenos Aires), vol. 5, Enero-Junio 2001, 71–101.
Poggendorff, J.C., Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch
der Exakten Naturwissenschaften. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag,
1960.