Photographs of the Late 19th — Early 20th Centuries as a Source for Visualizing the Cities of the Tobolsk Province

УДК 930.221+94(47) ББК 63.211+63.3(2)53

Abstract

The main goal of the work is to study the photographs in the context of their significance as a historical source for visualizing the space of cities in the Tobolsk province of the late 19^th — early 20^th centuries. Photo sources on all types of media stored in archives, museums and photo cards with views of cities that have been massively published since 1895 are used as sources. The modern historiography of the issue includes works of a local history character which summarize an impressive array of photographs, but unfortunately not always accompanied by search data. An analysis of the identified photographs allows us to identify several most popular scenes of the city landscape and to compare the quantitative characteristics of available sources. Photographers and photo studio owners were identified who were the authors of the photographs and engaged in the replication of postcards in each city of Tobolsk province. Including designated photographers who are the authors of images of several cities of the province at once. The data of the census forms of the First All-Russian Census of 1897 allow us to determine the places of permanent residence of specific photographers and the addresses of their studio, the presence of employees of photographers and students of photographers informs us of how developed the photo studio is. Data on the number of photographs characterizing one or another city and the variety of subjects allows us to draw conclusions about the existing demand for urban photo landscapes, since the vast majority of authors' photographers were professionals and received the main income from this activity. As a result, a wide variety of photographs allows you to confidently use the visual information contained in them to reconstruct the space of the urban environment.