Along the Banks of the Volga River

Masterpieces of the Russian photography of the second half of the 19th century
in the collection of the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg.

The display from the collection of the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg Along the Banks of the Volga River took place at the Royal Library of Belgium between October of 2005 and February of 2006 (during the Europalia-2005 festival), and then it was held at the Russian Centre for Science and Culture in New Delhi as part of the celebrations of the Year of Russia in India between December of 2008 and January of 2009.

This online version was created to accompany the display. The virtual exhibition shows over 40 masterpieces, taken by such outstanding Russia's photographers as Mikhail Nastyukov, Stepan Vishnevsky, Mikhail Bukar, Ivan (Jean) Raoult, Vasiliy (William) Carrick, Andrey Karelin, Semen Felzer, Evgeny Vishnyakov, Maxim Dmitriyev. The works, represented within the exposition, are numerous and varied, but all of them are united in their interest and love towards the Volga Riva that remains today, as more than one hundred years ago, one of the most glorious symbols of Russia.

In the second half of the 19th century, photography, a new genre of contemporary fine arts, became one of the most important sources of visual information. The representatives of this new artistic genre also paid attention to Russia's greatest river and made its wonderful depictions in their works.

Photography appeared in Russia, as in the rest of the world, back in 1839, and went successively through all the stages of its complicated technical evolution. The first photographic genre that gained much popularity was portrait. However, starting from the 1860s, it gradually gave way to other styles, such as panoramic and ethnographic photography that were widely used for educational and scientific purposes. Then, as a result of the industrial growth and the necessity to fix different stages of construction works, the technical genre emerged. There was also some interesting research into the artistic means, where masters attempted to assimilate photography with painting. By 1890, documentary photography and photojournalism began to develop following the demand to document the current events and fast-changing life.

Learn more about the Volga Riva

ELENA BARKHOTOVA, Candidate of Science in Art History
Head of the Prints Department
at the National Library of Russia
in Saint Petersburg