Glass Negatives circa 1928

Chem­i­cal pho­tog­ra­phy as we know it today was not invented in a day — one of the stages in devel­op­ing was the glass neg­a­tives pho­tog­ra­phy, when the   glass plates were cov­ered with a pro­tein emul­sion — invented in 1841, the process was clunky and dif­fi­cult to repro­duce. Those images can now be iden­ti­fied by the uneven coat of emul­sion, rough edges, thick glass and maybe even photographer’s thumbprint on it.

All in all, below are the 20+ images from the glass neg­a­tives — the shots of Soviet coun­try­side life, shot around 1928. Peo­ple, har­vests, views, tools — what­ever the pho­tog­ra­phy afi­cionado encoun­tered.  Con­sid­er­ing that this is pre-film, the spirit of these pho­tos is mind blow­ing. We hope you’ll share our excitement.

111 375x500 Glass Negatives circa 1928

A fash­ion­ista.

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Good Soviet Kids Go to Heaven? Nope, They Go to Artek!

198 500x348 Good Soviet Kids Go to Heaven? Nope, They Go to Artek!

Kids in the tra­di­tional uniform.

The most famous PR image of the pio­ne­ria of the Soviet Union was a sum­mer vaca­tion camp sit­u­ated in the Crimea (Ukraine), next to Gurzuf town. Founded as a sana­to­rium for the kids suf­fer­ing and recov­er­ing from the TB by the Russ­ian Soci­ety of the Red Cross, it first opened doors in 1925, June 16th, accom­mo­dat­ing about 80 kids from Moscow and the near­est Ukrain­ian towns.

Then it was just a step ahead of a basic camp­ing ground, with kids sleep­ing in tents out in the for­est. How­ever, it grew rapidly until in early 1930s a few per­ma­nent build­ings were built. It was then Artek started work­ing all year round due to its mild Mediterranean-like climate.

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Breakfast Time in Paintings by Russian Artists

Here is a twee col­lec­tion of paint­ings by var­i­ous Russ­ian artists pic­tur­ing break­fast time in Rus­sia of dif­fer­ent peri­ods, from 1918 through­out to late 1970s. It pro­vides some insights into an every­day life of sim­ple peo­ple and their meals on the go, before work, very low key and casual.

k petrov vodkin utrennij natyurmort 181 500x377 Breakfast Time in Paintings by Russian Artists

Still life: Morn­ing. By Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, 1918. Just like any­where else in the world, eggs are pop­u­lar and the dog is hungry.

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