Some historical photos of photographer Dmitri Ermakov.
From Mr. Rolf Gross collection.
During a series of assignments of teaching physics in Tbilisi in the 1980s I made the acquaintance of the director of the Georgian State Museum of Fine Arts in the basement of which the more than 2000 glass plates of the Ermakov Collection were stored at the time. He graciously allowed me to take a number of large photographic prints home. These were scraps from various projects (i.e., a calendar, prints for an exhibition in Akademgorodok-Novosibirsk 1984), which had been discarded for various reasons. I was delighted and they have been my Georgian treasure ever since.
The majority of the Ermakov glass plates are 7 x 9 inch in varying condition of preservation. Each negative has a Russian caption by the photographer, which I used. They have not been scanned or published. Obviously the plates badly need some professional attention. The Museum has no money for this task.
In 2000 several of my friends persuaded a Dutch non-profit organization to establish and fund a rescue mission for the photographic plates in Tbilisi. The curator of this “Georgian Museum of Photography” was Hans de Herder from an Institute of Photography in Rotterdam, Holland. De Herder was dismayed that I was in the possession of so many of of his precious photographs and implored me not to publish them in the near future. Except for a few single photos on my Georgian web pages - which promptly and without my knowledge made their way into the internet – I kept my promise.
Ten years later (2010) de Herder's project seems to have gone into limbo. To my knowledge nothing has been published, there is still no catalogue for and no internet presence of the Ermakov Collection. The time has come to open my personal collection to a limited number of people. Maybe this will provoke some institution to act to the benefit of this unique collection.
I own no rights to these photos. The copyrights to the photos are in the public domain. Still professional ethics would demand that their origin be documented. Please use them for non-commercial purposes with a customary reference to this website.
Pacific Palisades, California, September 2010
rolf357(at)gmail.com
Tiflis 1882-1915 |
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