A Moscou

Buildings, Cityscape, Documentary, People, Photography

Dimensions

Image Dimensions: 11.9 x 17.9 cm January
Support Dimensions: 18.7 x 27.1 cm

Frenchman Paul Naudot visited Russia in May, 1896 on the occasion of the coronation and celebrations of Emperor Nicolas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. His lengthy account appears in the January issue, including his observations of Russia and her people additionally illustrated with 11 of his photographs inset among text pages printed in halftone. The frontispiece seen here is a hand-pulled photogravure showing two Russian women wearing aprons and babushkas walking briskly down a Moscow sidewalk.

The following note by the editors of the Bulletin du Photo-Club de Paris for A Moscou appears in the January issue on p. 12:

Nos Illustrations

A MOSCOU. – La planche eu héliogravure qui accompagne ce numéro a été exécutée par MM. Fillon et Heuse, d’après un négatif de M. Paul Naudot (9 x 12, objectif Zeiss-Krauss). – Ce cliche représentant des paysannes russes, dans une rue de Moscou, fait partie, ainsi que ceux reproduits en typogravure dans le texte, de la collection rapportée par notre collègue au mois de niai dernier.

P. 1, attelage; p. 2, cosaques; p. 3, paysannes à Moscou; une rue dans un village russe; p. 4, samovars pour une fête populaire; p. 5, voiture russe; p. 7, fardu diers; p. 8, quai d’une gare; p. 9, ouvriers attendant une distribution de souvenirs du couronnement; p. 10, le Kremlin.

A fascinating account of the restrictive state of unauthorized photography as it existed in Russia in 1896 was reprinted in The Photographic Times from the English journal The Practical Photographer:

Photography in Russia.— M. Naudot describes his visit to Moscow during the recent coronation of the Czar, in the Bulletin du Photo Club de Paris. It is a difficult matter, he explains, to obtain permission to use a camera at any time in Russia, and on the occasion of the coronation the most severe measures were taken to prevent photography. Although he made many applications for a special permission to the officials at Moscow and St. Petersburg before leaving Paris, the privilege was denied, and in default of proper authority, he made a few snap-shots at considerable peril, risking the fine of several hundred roubles and even imprisonment. But France itself, the country of liberty, is not many degrees better than Russia; the photographer who wishes to do any work in the public gardens or squares, or indeed anywhere beyond the streets must have a permission, and he is by no means unlikely to be ordered off by the officious sergeant de ville even in the principle thoroughfares. If by any chance he should approach a fortification he will find himself the central figure in a most unpleasant vortex of excitement, representing a phase of the French people, which, in a nation of such enlightenment, is nothing short of disgraceful.— The Practical Photographer.  (1.)

1. Notes: in: The Photographic Times: New York: May, 1897: p. 250