O.N.I. — Photo Experiments of the New Academy of Fine Arts by Timur Novikov

In the mid-1990s, members of the New Academy of Fine Arts, well-known artists Timur Novikov, Denis Egelsky, Stas Makarov, Andrey Medvedev, and Yegor Ostrov, focused their attention on the intersection of contemporary art, classical antiquity, and the noble photographic printing processes. The result of this fascinating exploration was a series of unique works created at the crossroads of visual art and photography.

A specially established scientific department of the Academy was engaged in the study and recreation of historical, so-called noble photographic printing techniques, conducting experiments on the boundary between photography and painting, and reconstructing optical instruments.

The exhibition project is dedicated to the photographic practices of the members of the New Academy of Fine Arts. Inspired by classical ideals, the artists, like the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood once did, sought new means of expression in forgotten and vanishing technologies. Their creative interpretation of the possibilities of light painting continues the artistic inquiries of the inventor of photography, British scientist William Henry Fox Talbot.

“In 1994, due to differences in artistic vision, Timur Novikov stepped down as director of the New Academy of Fine Arts and became head of its museum. Recognizing the strong inclination of some faculty members and students toward research activity, a Department of Scientific Studies was established within the institution. Its priorities included the reconstruction and adaptation of forgotten and lost technologies of 19th-century artistic photography (light painting) to modern technical capabilities, as well as the development of new technological methods in this field. Archival research, laboratory experiments, and the creation of stable working processes defined the department’s development over the following eight years.

From its inception, the department organized specialized exhibitions. The largest of the following projects was “The New Positive Processes,” held in 1999 at the State Russian Museum.

After Timur Novikov’s death in 2002, the department carried on the initiatives he had begun, significantly expanding the scope of its scientific research. In 2024, the Department of Scientific Studies marks its 30th anniversary. Works by its members can be found in the collections of leading Russian and International museums, as well as private collections around the world. This significant area of the New Academy of Fine Arts continues research and exhibition activities to this day."

Denis Egelsky, St. Petersburg

In the early 19th century, the art of light painting (photography) was primarily practiced by two groups of researchers: artists and scientists, as there was not yet such a profession as photographer. It was then that two main directions emerged: direct photography (daguerreotype), which lacked the “negative–positive” principle, and the method proposed by William Henry Fox Talbot, based on producing positive prints from negatives. Interestingly, the “negative–positive” formula first appeared almost two thousand years earlier and refers to the Shroud of Turin. Yet it was only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries that an Italian photographer, documenting exhibits of the World’s Fair in Paris, produced the first positive photographic image of it. What is remarkable is that the original image on the Shroud, appearing as a faint negative, is neither pigment nor any known light-sensitive substance, but rather a kind of “scorch mark” on the fabric, created by a process still unknown to science. Thus, we are dealing with what may be considered the first light-painted image in history — the first photograph.
It is also impossible not to mention Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who pioneered heliogravure, and Alphonse Louis Poitevin, who developed photomechanical printing methods such as collotype, photolithography, and others. These processes relied on the properties of chromated colloidal gelatin solutions, which, under the action of light, lost their solubility in water in direct proportion to the intensity of exposure. There is a vast body of literature on these methods dating from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th century. Relatively speaking, these very processes represent what is known as non-silver photography.
When we first began our work, these were the very techniques we explored. We were especially drawn to gum-pigment printing, owing to its flexibility and the use of watercolor paint. The process is based on the fact that, under the action of light, chromated gum arabic mixed with pigment loses its solubility in water. When rinsed, the paint washes away, leaving a positive image formed from ordinary watercolor pigment. The unique feature of this technique lies in the ability to combine colors from the same negative to produce several successive prints, each layered over the previous one, allowing to effectively print the highlights, midtones, and shadows.
Let us return to the origins of light painting. With the standardization and commercialization of photographic materials, they became unsuitable for experimental approaches. While gum-pigment printing required only good watercolor paper, silver-based processes demanded handmade materials. That was exactly what we undertook. The use of optical devices had long been known in painting techniques. As demonstrated and described by the English artist David Hockney in his book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, instruments such as the concave mirror, camera obscura, and camera lucida had been employed from the time of the Van Eyck brothers (14th century) up to the Russian Peredvizhniki. In Russia, the Imperial Technical Society acquired all photography-related patents that appeared in the West. Many Russian artists, including members of the Imperial Academy of Arts, engaged in photography alongside their painting practice, including such figures as Andrei Denier, Andrei Karelin, and many others.

During their student years, the artists Ivan Kramskoi and Arkhip Kuindzhi became fascinated by photography, working under Andrei Denier. Dmitri Mendeleev was engaged in the study of photochemistry and even advised his friend Kuindzhi on certain aspects of it. Thus, we felt, as they say, “in our own element.” It became clear that, for silver-based printing processes, all materials had to be made manually. We chose a starting point — the simplest formulas from the first half of the 19th century. It turned out that even then, the unusual properties of silver halides had already been observed. For example, an exposed photographic plate coated with silver chloride, at the moment of its transition to silver subchloride, was able to “record” the natural colors before the lens, a single substance forming the entire spectrum. This phenomenon was later called chromoskedasic, meaning “color obtained by reflected light.” The resulting pure spectral colors resembled those of fish scales, bird feathers, and insect wings, each tone falling naturally into its proper place. It was direct color photography, without the “negative–positive” formula, capable of reproducing the full richness of the visible world in natural spectral hues using only a single substance — the dream of any artist! Yet it proved impossible to stabilize this effect. The renowned scientist Antoine Becquerel managed to do so once, producing an image of the spectrum (the original print is preserved in England). But the photographic fixing process proposed by John Herschel, involving the use of hyposulfite (sodium thiosulfate), which later became standard in photographic practice, completely destroyed this remarkable effect. Moreover, the reaction of silver halides with organic materials such as albumin and gelatin gave the resulting images an unpleasant tint, which had to be corrected through toning with salts of gold, platinum, or uranium.
Later, Gabriel Lippmann, who designed a special camera and received the Nobel Prize for the proof of the interference of light, created images in natural colors. Unfortunately, however, the process made it possible to produce photographs only on small glass plate, and his discovery never found any practical use.

In the 1990s, the scientist Gennady Branitsky discovered methods of transforming the metamorphoses of silver halides in such a way that even black-and-white photographs could be rendered in color. Yet once again, the photographic industry did not produce paper with a black backing, where the modification of the low-sensitivity silver bromide, known as the luminescent emulsion, could be utilized effectively.
Thus, our experimental priorities were established, though in a rather narrow field. Mercury, crystalline iodine, potassium cyanide, and other substances proved inaccessible for a number of reasons.
As a result, we began preparing our own papers, emulsions, and selecting printing methods most suitable for our artistic purposes. We mastered techniques for printing on various materials, metal, fabric, stone, and wood. Yet the ultimate aim of the O.N.I. union continues to be chromoskedasic painting — a goal that, without doubt, remains entirely attainable.