WILLIAM CARRICK: A Scottish Photographer in Nineteenth-Century Russia

WILLIAM CARRICK: A Scottish Photographer in Nineteenth-Century Russia

  The Scotland-Russia Institute, 9 South College Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AA

4 December 2009 – 22 January 2010 Admission Free    

This winter an intriguing exhibition of the work of Edinburgh born photographer William Carrick (1827 -78) will be on show at the Scotland-Russia Institute in Edinburgh. The first exhibition of Carrick's work was shown at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 1987. The exhibition will be recreated using digitally enhanced modern prints from the originals. The images give a fascinating insight into the breadth of Scottish photography  

Dating from the 1860s and 1870s, the photographs include a series depicting life in the busy streets of St Petersburg, from the street vendors who peddled their wares on the Nevsky prospect to nuns, priests, soldiers, street musicians and chimney sweeps. A Cossack brandishes his sabre and a fishmonger brought a barrel of live fish into the studio.  A group of coach drivers sit around a samovar drinking tea, as if waiting for their next fares.  

William Carrick’s father was a prosperous Scottish timber merchant in Kronstadt who retained close links with Scotland. He married a young Scottish woman, Jessie Lauder, and their first son, William, was born in Edinburgh on New Year's Eve , 1827.  He was taken a few months later to Russia where he was brought up.  He studied painting at the Russian Imperial Academy and in Rome.  On one of his visits to Edinburgh, he took lessons in photography from James Good Tunny, a leading portrait photographer.  In 1859, Carrick opened one of the first photographic studios in St Petersburg.  The photographs that resulted provide an invaluable record of life in Imperial Russia.   Another remarkable set of photographs taken by Carrick records the life and labour of the Russian peasants in the Volga Region of Simbirsk. The recently-emancipated serfs are seen at work in the fields and at rest, posing for the camera – probably the first they had ever seen.  

Carrick treated all his subjects with great sympathy and still greater artistry. His humour and his humanity are evident in the photographs he took, which, despite being called ‘types’ and intended for the tourist market, are always portraits of individuals.   The Carrick family link with Scotland was what ensured the survival of many of William Carrick's photographs, and also his life story.  His younger sister Jessie was sent to school in Edinburgh. She married an Englishman, and her daughter in turn married the designer, C R Ashbee.  Jessie's granddaughter, Felicity Ashbee, was so intrigued by the family photograph albums, that she deciphered and transcribed the hundreds of letters that had been sent to her grandmother, telling her the news of her family in St Petersburg - and especially of her oldest brother William and his photographic ventures.   .

 The SNPG is currently closed for refurbishment and due to reopen in November 2011.   

• The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is the first purpose-built national portrait gallery in the world, and the refurbishment will mean that it will be used entirely for its intended purpose for the first time in its history. This outstanding Grade A building, at the heart of the New Town on Queen Street in Edinburgh, was designed by architect Sir Robert Rowand Anderson to be a celebration of the people of Scotland. Portrait of the Nation will restore this ideal, breathing new life in to its galleries at the same time as creating much needed new facilities. Portrait of the Nation will open up and restore large areas in order to create 50% more gallery space. A range of visitor services, including an education suite, a resource and learning centre and enhanced dining and retail areas, will all be underpinned by an innovative and far-reaching events programme.

• The Scotland-Russia Forum is a Scottish charitable organisation founded in 2003 with the aim of promoting interest in and understanding of Russia and her neighbours by means of a variety of cultural, educational and business events. Activities include exhibitions, talks and discussions, Russian and English language classes, business networking events, Russian theatre productions, and other social activities.

• In 2008 the SRF opened an independent Russian culture centre, the Scotland-Russia Institute, which offers Internet access on a pay-as-you-go basis, a lending library, a shop selling books and gifts and rooms for hire for other cultural and educational uses. http://www.scotlandrussiaforum.org