In honor of the city's 1040th anniversary, the exhibition 'Vitebsk: A Portrait Against the Backdrop of Time' will open

On June 13, the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore opens a long-term exhibition "Vitebsk: A Portrait Against the Backdrop of Time": about 200 photographs capturing Vitebsk from the second half of the 19th century to the early 21st century, as well as a collection of cameras. All exhibited items are from the museum's collection. This is invaluable material on the city's history, and at the same time, unique photographs in themselves.

The photographs depict the changing architectural appearance of the city, individual significant buildings, streets, churches, and the panorama of Vitebsk. Many of the architectural monuments cannot be restored. And only old photographs make it possible to recreate, at least virtually, Vitebsk of different periods (1860s-2000s).

The works of photographers from the 1920s-1930s convey new themes: labor, construction, social transformations. The pictures capture rallies and demonstrations. Photographs from the Great Patriotic War and the post-war restoration of the city are more photojournalistic: scenes of a destroyed and reviving Vitebsk.

Photographs from subsequent years impartially show the destruction of architectural monuments, the reconstruction and transformation of city streets and squares, and finally, the restoration of Vitebsk churches.

The photographs also show the peaceful life of Soviet people in the second half of the 20th century.

Another section of the exhibition tells about the development of photography in Vitebsk, about the famous Vitebsk photographers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries S. Yurkovsky, Ya. Pashkovsky, A. Gershevich, A. Makovsky, A. Serebrin, and others. The exhibition features unique photographs by these and many other Vitebsk masters of light painting: K. Durikhin, Bobrovsky, P. Azarchenko, N. Klimov, S. Sosman, A. Ananyeva, V. Bazan, A. Glebov.

To more fully showcase the changes in the city and reflect the modern appearance of Vitebsk, Vitebsk photographers were invited to participate in the exhibition, who gifted their works to the museum: Igor Barsukov, Viktor Borisenkov, Alexander Vyshkа, Alexander Grigoriev, Alexander Zakharov, Alexander Memus, Yuri Shepelev, Valery Shishanov, Mikhail Shmerling. Each of them has their own authorial style, conveying their vision of modern Vitebsk through photography.

The creation of a photograph is impossible without photographic equipment. Therefore, the exhibition features cameras and photographic equipment of domestic and foreign production. A significant part of the presented items from the collection of cameras and photographic equipment is a gift to the museum from Vadim Nikolaevich Kuzmin. The installation allows the viewer to "take part" in the process of developing photographic film.

The exhibition will not leave indifferent lovers of traveling into the past, native and new residents of Vitebsk, and everyone who likes our city.

The opening will take place on June 13, 2014, at 16:00.