Landscape is the oldest and most cherished genre of photography. In his earliest photographs, made in 1839 using a camera obscura on silver-plated copper sheets, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre captured views of Parisian streets. Among the finest early paper photographs produced in the same year by the English photographer Henry Fox Talbot were architectural landscapes depicting Lacock Abbey.
The pioneers of photography—Maxime Du Camp, who worked in Egypt; F. Oppenheim, who photographed the Holy Land; and the brothers Louis-Auguste and Auguste-Rosalie Bisson, who documented the Alps—revealed to humanity the richness and diversity of the world. They introduced audiences to distant lands and the unique features of their natural environments. Images of cities and villages, seas and mountains, glaciers and deserts, captured through the small lens of the camera, conveyed to viewers the vastness and grandeur of the planet. Although landscape did not occupy a leading position in the hierarchy of genres within the fine arts, in photography it assumed a role of great significance.
On the one hand, scenic photography became a powerful visual resource that contributed to the development of geography, archaeology, and other sciences, serving as an essential tool for education and public enlightenment. On the other hand, landscapes and natural scenery—the diverse beauty of nature—found a strong resonance in artistic photography, which was practiced with equal success by professional masters and amateurs alike.
The “father of Russian photography,” Sergey Levitsky (1819–1898), also began his career with landscape photography. In 1842, while traveling as part of a commission inspecting the Caucasian mineral springs, he started to study photography, creating daguerreotype compositions depicting the landscapes of Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk, as well as views of Mount Mashuk and Mount Beshtau. These metal-plate landscapes, which have not survived to the present day, were likely highly expressive, as they were exhibited alongside portraits at the Industrial Exhibition in Paris in 1849. The award, however, was given to Charles Chevalier, the maker of the lens used by Levitsky for his daguerreotypes.
Later, after founding a studio in Saint Petersburg in 1849, Levitsky devoted himself primarily to portrait photography, which was in high demand in the Russian capital. With the spread of the wet collodion process in the 1850s, carte-de-visite portraits gained popularity, followed by cabinet portraits. Printed on paper, these formats became a profitable branch of photography and attracted many graduates of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts.
One of them, William Carrick (1827–1878), worked in the 1860s not only in the studio. He was among the first photographers to take his camera into the streets, where he captured “types” of St Petersburg street vendors. Carrick also practiced landscape photography in the surroundings of St Petersburg, photographing storm clouds, stones along a riverbank, a herd of cows in a pasture, and the dark, bare branches of trees set against white snow.
Modest in subject matter, these images were intended to help the artist render the surrounding world truthfully on canvas, as Carrick regarded photography as an “aid to painting.” Like many of his friends—graduates of the Academy of Arts—he treated photographic landscapes as a kind of visual study, later used in the creation of realistic painterly compositions.
In the 1870s, Carrick traveled along the Volga three times. There, however, he recorded not the beauty of the river’s scenery, but views of poor villages with thatched huts, half-ruined riverside mills, narrow rural streets, and harvested fields dotted with haystacks. Carrick produced around 700 photographs in the widely used “cabinet” format of the time. The compositions of these photographs, both thematically and formally, were oriented toward the aesthetic ideals of contemporary realist painting, particularly that of the Peredvizhniki (Itinerant) artists.
William (Vasily) Andreevich Carrick (1827, Edinburgh, Scotland — 1878, Saint Petersburg) came to Russia with his parents at the age of one. The family settled in Kronstadt, where his father was engaged in the timber trade and where William received his initial education. From the age of nine, Carrick lived in Saint Petersburg, first studying at an English school and, from 1844, at the Imperial Academy of Arts in the Department of Architecture. He was among the first photographers to leave the studio pavilion and work outdoors, capturing genre scenes in Saint Petersburg and its surroundings, in Novgorod Province, and in Finland.
In 1853, Carrick was awarded the title of non-classical artist with the right to undertake building projects and departed for Rome, where he lived until 1856, refining his skills in watercolor painting. In 1857–1858, he traveled with his family to his homeland, Scotland, where he studied photographic techniques and familiarized himself with the latest developments in the field.
In the spring of 1859, Carrick opened a photographic studio in Saint Petersburg at 19 Malaya Morskaya Street, where he worked together with his friend and partner, the Scottish photographer John MacGregor. That same year, Carrick’s photographs entitled Rural Life were exhibited at the annual exhibition of the Academy of Arts. During the 1860s, his studio was located on the Fifth Line of Vasilyevsky Island, at 1/6. Alongside commissioned portraits, the studio produced photographs of models whose images were widely used by artists as studies for painted compositions. Photographic reproductions of paintings were also produced there for commercial sale.
For his series Russian Types, executed in the carte-de-visite format, Carrick was awarded a diamond ring in December 1862 by the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Nicholas (son of Emperor Alexander II). Carrick took part in the All-Russian Manufactures Exhibition in Saint Petersburg (1870), where he received a bronze medal “for the excellent execution of photographs of folk life,” and in the Polytechnic Exhibition in Moscow (1872), where he was awarded a large silver medal.
During the 1870s, Carrick devoted considerable attention to the photographic reproduction of paintings and graphic works. In 1871, 1875, and 1878, he traveled through the Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Kazan, and Simbirsk provinces, visiting towns and villages of the Volga region and the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. During these journeys, he produced around 700 photographs in the popular cabinet format, encompassing ethnographic, landscape, and still-life subjects.
Gulf of Finland Fisherman
St. Petersburg Governorate, 1860s
This approach clearly distinguished Carrick’s photographs from those of other masters, who sought to capture in their images the grandeur of the Volga and the beauty of the towns and villages along its banks. Such were the photographic landscapes of Andrei Karelin (1837–1906), who also graduated from the St Petersburg Academy of Arts and in 1869 founded the studio Photography and Painting in Nizhny Novgorod.
Karelin studied photography under Mikhail Nastyukov, who gained renown for his album Views Along the Volga River from Tver to Kazan (1866–1867). Karelin continued his mentor’s work, creating striking landscape compositions depicting prosperous Volga river piers crowded with caravans of vessels, towering cliffs, and the powerful expanses of Russia’s longest river in flood.
In 1870, the album Nizhny Novgorod, consisting of Karelin’s photographs hand-colored by the artist Ivan Shishkin, was presented to Emperor Alexander II. At the famous Nizhny Novgorod Fair, Karelin maintained his own pavilion, where his photographic landscapes enjoyed considerable commercial success.
Andrei Osipovich Karelin (1837, the village of Selezni, Tambov Province — 1906, Nizhny Novgorod) began studying icon painting in Tambov at the age of ten. In 1857, due to his exceptional talent, he was sent to Saint Petersburg to study at the Imperial Academy of Arts, from which he graduated in 1864 with the title of non-classical artist. While studying at the Academy, Karelin married and, in order to support his family, was forced to earn additional income by hand-coloring photographs and working as a retoucher. In 1865, suffering from tuberculosis, he left Saint Petersburg and settled in Kostroma, where he worked as a portrait and church painter and was also employed at the photographic studio of M. P. Nastyukov. In 1866, Karelin moved with his family to Nizhny Novgorod. There he first opened a drawing school and, in 1869, founded the studio Photography and Painting. In 1870, together with the artist Ivan I. Shishkin, he produced the album Nizhny Novgorod. A copy of this album, featuring hand-colored photographs and presented by the Nizhny Novgorod nobility and merchant class, was gifted to Emperor Alexander II (today held in the State Russian Museum). During the 1870s, Karelin worked in his own pavilion at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair. In 1878, Karelin was elected a member of the French National Academy of Arts and was awarded a diploma by the French Photographic Society, as well as a gold medal at the Eighth World Exhibition in Paris. In 1880, he became a full member of the Fifth Department of Photography of the Imperial Russian Technical Society. During the 1870s–1880s, Karelin created the Artistic Album of Photographs from Life, which included staged genre scenes in interior settings, photographed using a distinctive combination of lenses. In 1882, he was awarded a gold medal at the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Moscow “for opening a new path and new methods in photography,” as well as “for special achievements and beneficial activity.” In 1885, Karelin received a gold medal “for the high artistic quality of photographic work” at the Nizhny Novgorod Handicraft and Industrial Exhibition, as well as a medal from the Imperial Russian Technical Society “for outstanding and artistic execution of photographs.” In 1886, he prepared another album titled Nizhny Novgorod and organized the first Nizhny Novgorod Art Exhibition. In 1887, Karelin was elected a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Scholarly Archival Commission. In 1889, he took part in the All-Russian Photographic Exhibition of the Imperial Russian Technical Society in Moscow. In 1895, Karelin was elected a full member and later an honorary member of the Russian Photographic Society. From 1898 to 1905, Karelin’s art collection and studio were open to the public. In 1903, he was awarded a silver medal at the First International Exhibition of the Saint Petersburg Photographic Society. In 1905, he opened the Edinburgh Photography studio in Moscow. He was also awarded a diploma and a gold medal by the Royal Academy in Edinburgh at the exhibition of the Edinburgh Photographic Society in 1876–1877.
Andrei Osipovich Karelin (1837, the village of Selezni, Tambov Province — 1906, Nizhny Novgorod) began studying icon painting in Tambov at the age of ten. In 1857, due to his exceptional talent, he was sent to Saint Petersburg to study at the Imperial Academy of Arts, from which he graduated in 1864 with the title of non-classical artist.
While studying at the Academy, Karelin married and, in order to support his family, was forced to earn additional income by hand-coloring photographs and working as a retoucher. In 1865, suffering from tuberculosis, he left Saint Petersburg and settled in Kostroma, where he worked as a portrait and church painter and was also employed at the photographic studio of M. P. Nastyukov.
In 1866, Karelin moved with his family to Nizhny Novgorod. There he first opened a drawing school and, in 1869, founded the studio Photography and Painting. In 1870, together with the artist Ivan I. Shishkin, he produced the album Nizhny Novgorod. A copy of this album, featuring hand-colored photographs and presented by the Nizhny Novgorod nobility and merchant class, was gifted to Emperor Alexander II (today held in the State Russian Museum). During the 1870s, Karelin worked in his own pavilion at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair.
In 1878, Karelin was elected a member of the French National Academy of Arts and was awarded a diploma by the French Photographic Society, as well as a gold medal at the Eighth World Exhibition in Paris. In 1880, he became a full member of the Fifth Department of Photography of the Imperial Russian Technical Society.
During the 1870s–1880s, Karelin created the Artistic Album of Photographs from Life, which included staged genre scenes in interior settings, photographed using a distinctive combination of lenses. In 1882, he was awarded a gold medal at the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition in Moscow “for opening a new path and new methods in photography,” as well as “for special achievements and beneficial activity.”
In 1885, Karelin received a gold medal “for the high artistic quality of photographic work” at the Nizhny Novgorod Handicraft and Industrial Exhibition, as well as a medal from the Imperial Russian Technical Society “for outstanding and artistic execution of photographs.” In 1886, he prepared another album titled Nizhny Novgorod and organized the first Nizhny Novgorod Art Exhibition.
In 1887, Karelin was elected a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Scholarly Archival Commission. In 1889, he took part in the All-Russian Photographic Exhibition of the Imperial Russian Technical Society in Moscow. In 1895, Karelin was elected a full member and later an honorary member of the Russian Photographic Society.
From 1898 to 1905, Karelin’s art collection and studio were open to the public. In 1903, he was awarded a silver medal at the First International Exhibition of the Saint Petersburg Photographic Society. In 1905, he opened the Edinburgh Photography studio in Moscow. He was also awarded a diploma and a gold medal by the Royal Academy in Edinburgh at the exhibition of the Edinburgh Photographic Society in 1876–1877.
Many photographers turned to views of towns along the Volga. The nature of this photographic production is illustrated, for example, by the landscapes of Rzhev recorded in the 1880s by Vasily Fedotov and Albert German. Their photographs are conceived as panoramas: shooting from the highest point on one bank of the river, they unfold a view of the opposite shore, capturing it in its entirety and in careful detail—residential buildings, cathedrals, bridges, and steamships moored at the quay.
At the same time, the fine-grained but limited resolving power of the optics prevents the numerous details of the urban landscape from being clearly distinguished, while the small size of the positive prints conveys little sense of the vast expanses of the Volga.
These photographic landscapes fall noticeably short in quality when compared with the scenic views created by the celebrated Nizhny Novgorod master Maksim Dmitriev (1858–1948), who became the most successful and consistent “bard” of the Volga. Images from his Volga Collection were first shown in 1889 at two All-Russian photographic exhibitions in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, held to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the invention of photography. Dmitriev’s large-format photographs were produced, as was emphatically noted in the exhibition catalogues, “without retouching on either negative or positive.”
Despite the concise nature of his compositions, often limited to an endless expanse of water, the Zhiguli or Bogorodsk hills, burial mounds, or a lone barge hauler trudging along the shore, his landscapes were distinguished by a strong artistic focus and remarkable visual power. For these works, Dmitriev was later awarded numerous prizes at exhibitions in Russia and abroad.
His photographs are not only geographically precise but consistently striking in their power of generalization. As a result, they are perceived not as mere photographic documents, but as vivid visual images celebrating the harmony and grandeur of nature. Having created around 1,200 images of the Volga, Dmitriev captured not only the river’s floods and tributaries, but also cityscapes, steamboat harbors, monasteries, and cathedrals, which seem to “rise up” within his expressive landscape compositions.
Dmitriev’s Volga photographs enjoyed great popularity and were widely reproduced as postcards. With the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1892, such postcards became a common and widely circulated medium, further contributing to the broad dissemination of his work.
“”Maxim Petrovich Dmitriev (1858, the village of Povalishino, Tambov Governorate — 1948, Nizhny Novgorod) was the illegitimate son of a serf peasant woman. Until the age of 14, he was raised in the home of his adoptive father and graduated from a parish school. At the age of 15, he moved to Moscow, where he worked at the photography studio of M. P. Nastyukov. There, he quickly mastered all photographic processes and began specializing in retouching. He attended Sunday classes at the Stroganov School of Technical Drawing. In 1874, M. P. Dmitriev first arrived in Nizhny Novgorod, working at a photo studio during the fair. There he met A. O. Karelin, in whose workshop he worked from 1879 to 1881. In 1881, he opened his own studio in Nizhny Novgorod with a partner, but it existed for less than a year. He later worked in photography studios in Oryol and Moscow. In 1886, Dmitriev once again opened a photographic studio in Nizhny Novgorod. From 1888, he worked for the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Scholarly Archival Commission, taking photographs of historical monuments of the Volga region. In 1889, he first exhibited his works at the All-Russian Exhibition organized by the Photographic Department of the Society for the Dissemination of Technical Knowledge in Moscow, as well as at the Second Exhibition of the Fifth (Photography) Section of the Imperial Russian Technical Society in St. Petersburg. In 1891 and 1892, Maxim Petrovich Dmitriev traveled through many areas affected by disaster and took photographs that were later included in the album “The Crop Failure of 1891–1892 in the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate.” In 1892, the album was published in Dmitriev’s own phototype printing house, along with the “Artistic Album of the Nizhny Novgorod Volga Region” (1895). From 1894, Dmitriev was a full member of the Russian Photographic Society in Moscow, and from 1897, an honorary member of the Kazan Photographic Society. In 1899, he was elected a full member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. In the 1900s, he worked in the genre of everyday life photography, documenting flophouses, workhouses, and barge haulers. In 1908, Maxim Petrovich Dmitriev organized the exhibition “From Native Antiquity.” That same year, he founded the Nizhny Novgorod Photographic Club and served as its chairman from 1908 to 1911. In 1913, he documented the visit of Nicholas II to Nizhny Novgorod and the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov. In the 1920s, he focused on documentary genre and technical aspects. In 1927, he created a photo essay about workers’ families moving into new apartments. He often photographed Maxim Gorky, who supported his fellow countryman, although most of Dmitriev’s negatives were later confiscated by the authorities.
With the development of the phototype printing process, a number of noteworthy photographs also began to be reproduced, including those that formed the album The Sources of the Volga (1893), created by General Yevgeny Vishnyakov (1841–1916), a member of the Russian Geographical Society. The author of the article The Application of Photography to Travel and Work on Negative Plates (1889), Vishnyakov was among the first to photograph using dry gelatin plates convenient for travel, and later flexible film.
Vishnyakov photographed extensively in the Caucasus, on Valaam Island, and in the surroundings of Saint Petersburg, gaining renown for his expressive scenic photography, particularly winter landscapes, which were especially difficult to produce. His photographs were widely used by artists as preparatory studies; among them was Ivan Shishkin, who worked closely with Vishnyakov.
They were united by a shared love of nature and a commitment to the development of realistic landscape, both in painting and in photography.
“”Yevgeny Petrovich Vishnyakov (1841, Pskov Province — 1916, Petrograd) received his education at the Pavlovsk Cadet Corps, from which he graduated in 1862, and began his military service in the Caucasian Grenadier Brigade. As an amateur photographer, he took up photography in 1867, developing a particular interest in landscape photography. Vishnyakov’s landscapes were widely used by artists as preparatory studies. Ivan I. Shishkin held his work in high esteem and often accompanied him on photographic excursions.
In 1888, Vishnyakov undertook a journey to the Caucasus, during which he produced more than 300 photographs, including views of Mount Elbrus, the Chegem Gorge, and other locations. He reported on this expedition at a meeting of the Fifth Department of the Imperial Russian Technical Society, where he gave a detailed account of working with the still little-known Eastman roll films. Vishnyakov later wrote about the more advanced transparent celluloid films of his time in his book The Application of Photography to Travel (1893), which became popular among both professional photographers and amateurs. Among this audience, he was especially renowned for his winter landscapes.
In 1889, Vishnyakov’s finest photographs were published using the phototype process in two volumes of the album Photographs from Life. In his most famous book, The Sources of the Volga (1893), which bore the original subtitle Sketches in Pen and Photography, Vishnyakov appeared simultaneously as author, geographer, and photographer. A similar publication, Belovezhskaya Pushcha, followed in 1894.
Yevgeny Petrovich Vishnyakov was a full member of the Fifth Department of Photography of the Imperial Russian Technical Society. He was also a member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and an honorary member of the Kazan Photographic Society. From 1913 onward, General Vishnyakov served on the Alexandrovsky Committee for the Wounded.
Using dry bromide gelatin plates, Ivan Barshchevsky (1851–1948) was among the first in the 1890s to photograph monuments of medieval Russian architecture in the Yaroslavl and Rostov provinces. He later traveled extensively through the ancient towns of the Volga region, the Russian North, and the Caucasus, and took part in expeditions led by the renowned scholar Nikolai Kondakov to Palestine and Mount Athos. Barshchevsky’s photographs came into wide use among archaeologists and historians.
In his images, stone cathedrals and wooden churches often function as the dominant compositional elements. At the same time, the photographer sought to capture onion domes, carved portals, and wall decoration, striving not only to record every detail of a monument but also to convey the beauty of its presence within the natural landscape.
A member of the Moscow Archaeological Society and photographer of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, Barshchevsky produced a vast body of work between the 1890s and the 1920s. Today, his photographs constitute one of the most important documentary sources for the study and restoration of Russia’s ecclesiastical architecture.
Ivan Fyodorovich Barshchevsky (1851, Luga District of Saint Petersburg Province — 1948, the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow) was born into the family of an impoverished retired civil servant and was unable to obtain a formal education. At the age of fourteen, he became acquainted with photographic practice. At eighteen, he moved to Saint Petersburg, where he worked as a retoucher in the studio of K. Bergamasco while simultaneously studying at a drawing school; he later attended private classes at the Academy of Arts.
In 1870, Barshchevsky settled in Yaroslavl, and in 1877 opened his own photographic studio in Rostov the Great, where he developed a strong interest in archaeology and the study of antiquities. In 1882, he undertook his first photographic expedition, using dry bromide gelatin plates to record monuments of medieval Russian architecture in the Rostov region. In recognition of these works, in 1883 he was elected a corresponding member of the Imperial Moscow Archaeological Society and granted the title of Photographer to the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. In 1897, Barshchevsky was invited by Princess Maria K. Tenisheva to Talashkino, where from 1899 he directed the artistic workshops. He was also the founder and director of the Russian Antiquities Historical and Ethnographic Museum in Smolensk.
During the 1920s, Barshchevsky worked as a photographer in the museums of the Moscow Kremlin, and in 1933 moved to Kolomenskoye, where he devoted himself to restoration work. Barshchevsky took part in numerous photographic exhibitions and created an exceptionally rich collection of photographs, approximately five thousand images, documenting monuments of architecture and decorative and applied arts.
Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, he traveled extensively through ancient towns of the Volga region, the Russian North, and the Caucasus, and participated in expeditions led by N. P. Kondakov to Palestine and Mount Athos.
In the 1890s, the development of new photographic technologies, along with the commercial availability of dry photographic plates and a variety of films, led many amateurs to take up photography. The medium captivated people from all strata of society—from grand dukes to merchants and the urban middle classes. In 1890, the journal The Amateur Photographer began publication in Saint Petersburg. Its pages noted: “Russia offers the amateur photographer such an abundance of material as all of Europe combined cannot provide… Where else is there a country in which the cold waves of the Arctic Ocean, beneath the never-setting sun, crash against granite cliffs… Where else are there forests like the Belovezhskaya Pushcha” (1890, no. 3).
During the 1890s and 1900s, enthusiasm for photography became both fashionable and prestigious. Photographic societies were established in many cities; they organized exhibitions and competitions and arranged photographic excursions, often to nearby suburban areas. Thus, in 1913, a series of landscapes by I. V. Khoroshilov entitled The Environs of Moscow was published using the phototype process, depicting Kuntsevo, Sokolniki, and Petrovsko-Razumovskoye. Such mass-produced editions undoubtedly contributed to the active development of the landscape genre and testified to its popularity among audiences.
Picturesque country roads, oak groves, and the banks of winding rivers, dense forests and mysterious lakes are reflected in numerous photographs created by unknown amateur photographers at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many images capture the poetic nature of Russian country estates; members of noble families were often immortalized within these landscape views.
To enliven their compositions, many authors employed staffage, introducing human figures not only to convey a sense of scale, but also to lend a distinctive narrative quality to the landscape photograph.
In 1900, the Moscow Artistic and Photographic Society was founded. Its members viewed photography as an independent form of visual art. In 1902, the Russian Society of Photography Enthusiasts was established, whose charter set the goal of “promoting photography to the level of art.” The interpretation of photography as a distinct type of visual art with its own expressive possibilities became relevant worldwide at the beginning of the 20th century. To address aesthetic challenges, the genre of landscape photography was often used, as it allowed for relatively greater conceptual and formal freedom. This brought photographers closer to painters, such as the members of the “Union of Russian Artists,” founded in 1903, whose work was dominated by nature-themed subjects.
The expressive and multifaceted beauty of nature, and its changing states throughout the seasons, became the subject of both painterly and photographic works, many of which took the form of “studies” and poetic “motifs.” At the same time, many photographers—such as Vasily Kononov in his series of views of Pavlovsk—sought to construct the landscape according to traditional principles of pictorial art, framing the compositional center with distinctive “wings” or coulisses and emphasizing the nuances of natural light and shadow.
Professional and amateur photographers alike have always turned to scenic photography, to the depiction of familiar and native landscapes. In one of his lectures, the renowned scientist Kliment Timiryazev, reflecting on this kind of interest, emphasized:
“This feeling for nature, which brings all people closer together, contains something elusive and unexplained: the poet cannot express it in words, nor can the scholar fully comprehend it. It is a kind of unconscious patriotism — not the narrow, gloomy kind that divides people, but a broader, brighter one that unites them through a shared bond with their homeland.”
Last updated on 12.03.2026
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