FIRST PHOTOBIENNALE OF HISTORICAL AND ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE RUSSIAN MUSEUMS, ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES

The exhibition presents the historic and archive photography of the midst of the 19^th - first half of the 20^th century in the wide thematic range and variety of artistic and technical peculiarities. The exposition including about 400 photographs from the collections of 24 museums, archives and libraries of St Petersburg and Moscow is organized according to the specific features of forming of the collections where these exhibits were originally placed.

The main genres and varieties of the historic and archive photography (the portrait  photography, genre scenes, photo reportage, ethnographical and documental photos) are presented by works by the famous masters of the Russian and foreign photography (A.Davinyon, G.Veninger, M.Abadi, S.Levitsky, A.Denier, I.Bianki, A.Laurens, V.Karrik, A.Karelin, K.Bulla, I.Boldyrev, M.Nappelbaum, K.Arapov, A.Shaikhet, I.Shagin, M.Markov and others). These exhibits show the little-known collections and give viewers an opportunity to appreciate the richness of the photography heritage that is concentrated in the great museums.

The exposition is supplemented by the unique examples of the photo-technique of the midst of the 19^th - beginning of the 20^th century (cameras, objectives, laboratory techniques and etc. from the collection of the Museum of the History of Photography (St. Petersburg).