Court Photographers

[Margarita Markovna]

I'm looking for the names of the photographers who took pictures of the imperial family (NAOTMAA only is what I'm looking for). I also need the year of their death. (Doesn't need to be exact, but I'm looking for pre 1937ish or not.) Thank you!

[Margarita Markovna]

"Bumping" this thread up, it's important (or even just to know that they've been dead since the 30's)...

[julia.montague]

Do you need it because of Copyright?  

[Forum Admin]

Somewhere this had been discussed before, but I can't find the thread so will answer from memory.

Levitsky started photographing when Nicholas was Tsetsarevich.
Boissonas & Eggler, for formal portraits
Karl Hahn (or "Gan" in Russian) for less formal photos
Bulla for "public events"

Boissonas bought out a previous Court photographer,but I can't recall who.

[grandduchessella]

Do you need it because of Copyright?  

That's part of the tricky thing. Charlotte Zeepvatt in CATT notes that until the 1890s Russian photographers did not enjoy copyright protection. This can cause confusion in trying to determine the photographer of a certain picture because it wasn't unusual for one photographer to reproduce anothers work and then claim it as his own. Since there was no copyright protection this was perfectly legal. So, for instance, you might see the same image marked as Levitsky as well as by another photographer.

[Forum Admin]

copyright has nothing to do when the photographer died. It depended on when the image was taken, and since we are talking about images all before the 1920s, the original photograhers' copyrights, if any, are long gone.

[Forum Admin]

Pasetti. !! I knew I'd remember. Pasetti was the "formal" photographer until bought out by Boissonnas & Eggler in about 1897 or so.

[Sarushka]

copyright has nothing to do when the photographer died. It depended on when the image was taken, and since we are talking about images all before the 1920s, the original photograhers' copyrights, if any, are long gone.

Ah! Is that why so many Romanov photos can appear online without getting 'busted' by the copyright police?

[Margarita Markovna]

Do you need it because of Copyright?

Yes, but thanks to FA's response (quoted below) I don't need to know when they died. I read something about copyrights having to do with the photographer's death but maybe that is only a modern copyright thing.

copyright has nothing to do when the photographer died. It depended on when the image was taken, and since we are talking about images all before the 1920s, the original photograhers' copyrights, if any, are long gone.

Thank you very much! All the information you and others have given me in this thread is great for what I'm working on.  

[Forum Admin]

The  concept of "life of the photographer plus 70 years is the law in the UK, not the US, and only applies to photographs taken on or after Jan. 1, 1996.

The UK copyright for any photograph taken before Jan. 1, 1945 expired Dec 31, 1994 or earlier.

for US copyright law, go to www.copyright.gov

[Tsarina_Liz]

I don't know if we're allowed to talk about this on this thread (if this thread is only for strict biographical information) but... how did a person become a court photographer?  And did the royals of the world back then share photographers through recommendations and such?  

[Scott]

Bergamasco is another.

[Forum Admin]

Scott,
Actually, while Bergamasco was an earlier Imperial Court photographer, he did not actually photograph NAAOTMA, which was the specific question. His atelier went out of business and the Imperial Warrant for photography was succeeded by Levitsky.

Photographers were chosen like any other supplier to the Imperial House.  Their work was considered the best and approved of by the Emperor and the Imperial Warrant granted.

[Tsarina_Liz]

Imperial Warrant?  Is that like some sort of official permission slip from the Tsar?

[Margarita Markovna]

Thank you Angie!