4021 - Carrick, William

Carrick, William Portraits of Russian types. 1860s. 12 albumen prints, mounted to original studio carte-de-visite. Each circa 9,5 x 5,5 cm. Several with number in the negative in lower right corner, bound as leporello in small grey canvas album with gilt-embossed title "Types Russes"on front cover. The Scottish-Russian artist and photographer William Carrick was born in Edinburgh and raised in Kronstadt. In 1844, his family moved to St. Petersburg, where he enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Arts to study architecture. During a brief return to Edinburgh in 1857, Carrick met the photographic technician John MacGregor. The two returned to Russia together and established a studio in St. Petersburg, with MacGregor serving as Carrick’s assistant. Carrick quickly emerged as a pioneering photographer of Russian ethnographic subjects, documenting rural life with notable humanity and sensitivity. Popular with contemporary tourists, these images are now exceptionally rare. – Edges of album spine rubbed/torn, some photos with small spots, otherwise in very good condition.