The Role of Historical Sources for Identification of Early Photography

The last three decades have been marked by a surge of interest in 19th century photography, which has made it a full-fledged participant of the art market and, more importantly, the subject of research activities of a wide range of specialists: cultural historians, philosophers, art historians, restorers, chemists and physicists. By setting different goals and using the scientific tools of their field of knowledge, they contribute to the understanding and preservation of photography as one of the key components of the historical memory of mankind. To date, Russian scholars have introduced a significant number of new works of early photography into the scientific turnover. The close interest to daguerreotypes from collectors, which led to the increase in prices on the antique market, was largely due to a number of scientific studies, which found expression in publications and the organisation of exhibitions.

The present article is devoted to current issues of research practice involving the study, attribution and conservation of photography as a material object. These processes are among the primary tasks of specialists working with arrays of photographic materials of different historical and cultural significance in museums, archives and libraries. The importance of the development and testing of new methods of studying monuments within the framework of the formation of the domestic experience of studying photography is noted.

For the first time, the question of the reliability of the approach, due to which written testimonies act as the main sources in the attribution of a monument is raised: often used as a starting point of expertise, they may later (in a comprehensive study) contradict the data of other scientific methods. As a result of the study, contradictions between written historical evidence (textual information) and the data of a complex scientific analysis of early Russian photography have been revealed; a comprehensive methodology for its attribution by museum specialists has been proposed.

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