The desire to capture the moments of life that occur with a person or the world around him has always existed. This is evidenced by cave paintings, and fine art. In the canvases of artists, accuracy and detail, the ability to capture an object in a favorable perspective, light, convey a color palette, and shadows were especially appreciated. Such work sometimes took months of work. It was this desire, as well as the desire to reduce time costs, that became the impetus for creating such an art form as photography.
The appearance of the photograph
In the IV century BC, Aristotle, a famous scientist from Ancient Greece, noticed a curious fact: the light that seeped through a small hole in the window shutter repeated the landscape seen outside the window with shadows on the wall.
Further, in the treatises of scientists from Arab countries, the phrase camera obscura, literally meaning "dark room," begins to be mentioned. This turned out to be a device in the form of a box with a hole in front, with which it became possible to draw still lifes and landscapes. Later, the box was improved, equipped with moving halves and a lens, which made it possible to focus on the picture.
Thanks to new features, the pictures became much brighter, and the device was called the “bright room”, that is, camera lucina. Such simple technologies allowed us to find out what Arkhangelsk looked like in the middle of the 17th century. With their help, the perspective of the city, distinguished by accuracy, was shot.
Stages of development of photography
In the XIX century, Joseph Nieps invented a method of photographing, which he called heliogravure. Shooting with this method took place in bright sunshine and lasted up to 8 hours. Its essence was as follows:
• A metal plate was taken, which was coated with bitumen varnish.
• The plate was directly exposed to bright light, due to which the varnish did not dissolve. But this process was heterogeneous and depended on the power of lighting in each of the sections.
• Next, the plate was treated with solvent.
• After poisoning with acid.
As a result of all the manipulations, a relief, engraved picture appeared on the plate. The next significant step in the development of photography was the daguerreotype. It got its name from the name of its inventor, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, who was able to get an image on a silver plate treated with iodine vapor.
The next method was calotypy invented by Henry Talbot. The advantage of the method was the ability to make copies of one image, which, in turn, was reproduced on paper saturated with silver salt.
First acquaintance with the art of photography in Russia
The history of Russian photography has been going on for more than a century and a half. And this story is full of various events and interesting facts. Thanks to the people who discovered the art of photography for our country, we can see Russia through the prism of time as it was many years ago.
The history of photography in Russia begins in 1839. It was then that a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences I. Gamel went to the UK, where he got acquainted with the method of calotypy, having studied it in detail. After which he sent a detailed description. So the first photographs were taken, made by the method of calotypy, which are still stored in the Academy of Sciences in the amount of 12 pieces. In the pictures there is a signature of the inventor of the method, Talbot.
After this, in France, Hamel meets Daguerre, under whose guidance he personally takes several pictures. In September 1841, the Academy of Sciences received a letter from Hamel, in which, according to his words, was the first photograph taken from nature. The photograph taken in Paris shows a female figure.
After that, photography in Russia began to gain momentum, rapidly developing. Between the 19th and 20th centuries, photographers from Russia began to take part in photo exhibitions and international-class salons, where they received prestigious awards and prizes, had membership in the respective communities.
Talbot Way
The history of photography in Russia was developed thanks to people who were keenly interested in a new art form. This was also Julius Fedorovich Fritzsche, the famous Russian botanist and chemist. He was the first to master the Talbot method, which consisted in obtaining negativity on photosensitive paper, followed by printing it on a sheet treated with silver salts and appearing in sunlight.
Fritzsche took the first photos-calotypes of plant leaves, after which he entered the Akadamia of Sciences in St. Petersburg in May 1839 with a report. In it, he said that he finds the method of calotypy suitable for capturing flat objects. For example, the method is suitable for taking pictures of original plants with the accuracy necessary for a botanist.
Contribution of J. Fritzsche
Thanks to Fritzsche, the history of photography in Russia took a step further: he proposed replacing the sodium hyposulfate, which Talbot used to display the picture, with ammonia, which significantly improved calotypy, improving image quality. Julius Fedorovich was also the first in the country and one of the first in the world to conduct research on photography and photo art.
Alexey Grekov and the “art booth”
The history of photography in Russia continued, and Aleksei Grekov made his next contribution to its development. A Moscow inventor and engraver, he was the first Russian master of photography to master both calotypy and daguerreotype. And if you ask a question about what the first cameras in Russia were, then it is Grekov’s invention, the “art room,” that can be considered as such.
The first camera he created in 1840 made it possible to make high-quality portrait photographs with good sharpness, which many photographers who tried to achieve this did not succeed in. Grekov invented a chair with special comfortable pillows that supported the head of the person being photographed, allowing him not to get tired during a long sitting and maintain a fixed position. And it took a long time to be motionless in a chair: 23 minutes in the bright sun, and on a cloudy day - all 45.
Masters of photography Grekova is considered to be the first Russian portrait painter. To achieve beautiful portrait photographs he was helped by the device he invented, consisting of a wooden camera into which light did not penetrate. But at the same time, the boxes could be advanced one from the other and returned to the place. At the outer box on the front of it, he attached a lens, which was a lens. Inside the box was a light sensitive plate. By changing the distance between the boxes, that is, moving them one from another or vice versa, it was possible to achieve the necessary sharpness of the picture.
Contribution of Sergey Levitsky
The next person, thanks to whom the history of photography in Russia rapidly continued to develop, was Sergey Levitsky. In the history of Russian photography appeared daguerroptypes of Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk, made by him in the Caucasus. And also the gold medal of an art exhibition held in Paris, where he sent pictures to participate in the competition.
Sergey Levitsky was in the forefront of photographers who suggested changing the decorative background for the shoot. He also decided to retouch portrait photographs and their negatives in order to reduce or completely remove technical imperfections, if any.
Levitsky left for Italy in 1845, deciding to increase the level of knowledge and skills in the field of daguerreotype. He takes pictures of Rome, as well as portrait photos of Russian artists who lived there. And in 1847 he came up with a photographic apparatus with folding fur, using fur from harmony for this. The innovation allowed the camera to become more mobile, which greatly affected the expansion of photography opportunities.
Sergey Levitsky returned to Russia as a professional photographer, having opened his own daguerreotype workshop Svetopis in St. Petersburg. With her, he also opens a photo studio with a rich collection of photo portraits of Russian artists, writers and public figures. He does not give up the study of the art of photography, continuing to experimentally study the use of electric light and its combination with the sun and their effect on pictures.
Russian footprint in photography
Artists, masters of photography, inventors and scientists from Russia have made a great contribution to the history and development of photography. So, among the creators of new types of cameras, such Russian surnames as Sreznevsky, Ezuchevsky, Karpov, Kurdyumov are known.
Even Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev took an active part in the theoretical and practical problems of photographing. And together with Sreznevsky they stood at the origins of the creation of the photographic department in the Russian Technical Society.
The successes of the outstanding master of Russian photography, which can be put on a par with Levitsky, Andrei Denier, are widely known. He was the creator of the first photo album with portraits of famous scientists, doctors, travelers, writers, artists. And the photographer A. Karelin became known throughout Europe and entered the history of photography as the founder of the genre of household photography.
The development of photo art in Russia
Interest in photography at the end of the 19th century increased not only among specialists, but also among the general population. And in 1887, the "Photographic Bulletin" was published, a magazine in which information was collected on recipes, chemical compositions, methods of processing photographs, and theoretical data.
But before the revolution in Russia, the opportunity to engage in artistic photography was available only to a small number of people, since almost none of the inventors of the camera had the opportunity to produce them on an industrial scale.
In 1919, V.I. Lenin issued a decree on the transition of the photographic industry under the control of the People's Commissariat for Education, and in 1929 the creation of photosensitive photographic materials began, which later became available to everyone. And already in 1931 the first domestic Photocor camera appeared.
The role of Russian masters, photo artists, inventors in the development of photo art is great and occupies a worthy place in the world history of photography.