Béton Center of Visual Culture presents a unique exhibition “The Town of N and its inhabitants. Photography of the 19th – early 20th centuries”. The exhibition will feature about one hundred photographs – original authentic works, ranging from daguerreotypes of the 1840s to prints of the 1910s. The photos show views of Russian cities, portraits of people and genre scenes.

The town of N has no coordinates. The authors of the project deliberately avoid georeferencing. Geography is conventional, portraits of citizens are depersonalized. This approach makes it possible to create a collective image of the Russian province and the people who live there.

Artists poetized the Russian province in the second half of the 19th century, while writers more often ridiculed and denounced it. Some did both together. But all saw the same thing: the old days and their vestiges. Patterns, orders, customs, patriarchy, unwillingness to change. Lack of time. Those who advocated progress saw it as archaism, and those who looked for roots and identity – reveled. There are many reasons for this state of affairs.

The province was changing (not only factories, but also railroads, electric lights, paved streets, public libraries and theaters…). But the great reforms did not change the face of the country overnight. The innovations were introduced and took root gradually and for a long time. And if in the capitals and large cities, the changes were awaited, resented the fact that they came slowly, and sought to speed up, in the provinces the situation was different. Breaking the traditional way of life did not always bring immediate benefits. It often led to the emergence of new problems that still had to be solved. Therefore, the new was sometimes treated with caution and sought to build changes into the familiar order.

The exhibition “The Town of N and its inhabitants. Photography of the 19th – early 20th centuries” is a purely artistic project that invites the viewer to become an impartial observer, to immerse themselves in the non-rural life of the time, to put together a colorful mosaic of provincial Russia from various details of everyday life captured in photographs.