photos of Russian empire

[Elena Gapova]

Dear all,

as my hightech optics husband explained to me, with this technology
(taking three pictures with different filters etc.), but due to the fact
that
this is still black and white photography (in which зернистость is
much less), just reproduced using special techniques, the color quality
(цветопередача) can be very good and comparable to that of
expensive (not just any) contemporary digital cameras.

My disbelief was partially related to my being a scholar of nationalism,
where one confronts all kinds of proofs of the authenticity of a nation's
origin, continuity, culture, language etc. I also have another reason for
being cautious with historical documents vs. modern technology.
In 2000 I was putting together (as the editor and the "conceiver of the
 idea") the first calendar of the "Women of Belarus" series. The idea
was to present some social history of the area (mostly during Russian
Empire, but also in other periods) through "pictures" (photos, posters,
paintings etc.) focused around different topics; thus every calendar
results from a smaller research project of looking for such in museums,
archives and elsewhere (4 issues have already been published and can
be viewed at  http://gender.ehu.by/ru/strip.php?id=525 ).

The first calendar "Roads to Freedom" was supposed to present several
outstanding turn-of-the-century women (but one had to discover some
of them first); they might have been active in either socialist struggle, or
work for "a national cause", or "чтобы принести счастье на еврейскую
улицу", as Esfir' Frumkina did, "the most famous woman of the Jewish
revolutionary movement of the Russian Empire" and the only woman
among the leaders of Bund, of whom I knew form  prof. Rochelle Rutchild
(I was able to publish her text on Frumkina in Russian in "Женщины на
краю Европы", Мн., 2003). I could not find her picture, though, and a
friend at the archive told me "there's no personal photo, there must be
some group one somewhere, but who would be interested in her now and
why don't you do the calendar of the leaders of the Belarusian People's
Republisc of 1918 instead".

At that point I realized that I could use almost any turn-of-the-century
female photo: no one knows now how Esfir' Frumkina really looked and it
"does not matter for history". No one would be able to prove that I cheated
and no one would even think of it or care to...

With consultations from YIVO Institute in N.Y. and Zvi Guitelman (U of
Michigan) I found a photo (in his book "Jews of Russia and the former SU),
of some Jewish Congress of 1908 (about 50 people) with Esfir' Frumkina
in it. Her face was the size of a small pea. The designer enlarged the face
using some contemporary technology: зернистость became unbearable
(as in works of Serat and some impressionists). At the end, with more
techlogy and some artistry involved, we were able to reproduce the image
without violating historical truth too much. I think.

e.g.

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