A photo history of Vitebsk over 150 years is presented at an exhibition in the City Hall

Фотоистория Витебска за 150 лет представлена на выставке в городской Ратуше

The permanent photo exhibition "Vitebsk: A Portrait Against the Backdrop of Time" has opened at the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. As reported to BELTA correspondent by the institution, the exhibition features over 200 works depicting Vitebsk from the second half of the 19th to the early 21st century.

The museum emphasized that this is the first photo exhibition dedicated to Vitebsk. The exhibition includes works from the museum's collections and the State Archive of the Vitebsk Region (photos by Alexander Memus and Alexander Grigoriev). In addition, the exhibition showcases photographs by contemporary photographers, both professionals and amateurs (K. Durikhin, G. Bobrovsky, P. Azarchenko, A. Ananyeva, N. Klimov, N. Sivakov, V. Bazan, A. Vyshka, A. Grigoriev, Yu. Shepelev, V. Shishanov, A. Glebov, I. Barsukov, A. Memus, M. Shmerling, and others).

The oldest photos of Vitebsk date back to the 1860s. Their authors are Vitebsk photographers Sigizmund Yurkovsky and Yakov Pashkovsky. There are not many such photos. "They are among the most valuable, unique, and significant items in the exhibition," the museum noted. The exhibition also features photographs taken in the 1950s by Konstantin Durikhin, a student at the medical university. "Part of these photos was posted online by the author's daughter, who lives in Volgograd. At the museum's request, she sent over 300 photographs to Vitebsk. This provides a broad overview of Vitebsk life in the 1950s. There are very colorful works that reflect the urban landscape and people of that period," the museum said. "You can also see photos of buildings and structures that no longer exist, and trace how the city has changed over the past 150 years."

The exhibition is complemented by cameras and photographic equipment from different periods, produced in the USSR and by foreign firms. A significant portion of the presented items is a donation to the museum by Vitebsk collector Vadim Kuzmin.

Alena Tikhonova