The story of one photograph. Life Guards Kexholm Regiment + lens with a diameter of 1 meter (11 photos)

The Gomel History Museum houses an exhibition dedicated to the Imperial Guard. The central object of the exhibition was a photograph of the Kexholm Regiment, which depicts more than a thousand people. The photograph dates back to the beginning of the 20th century.

In the Museum of the History of Gomel, a photograph of the regiment appeared thanks to the Mezhenny family, whose representatives in the male line are descendants of one of the guards depicted in the photograph, Fedos Korotky.

According to the memoirs of Boris Mezhenny, “this photograph was taken on the occasion of the resignation of the regiment commander. We spent a long time preparing for photography; my grandfather even lit a cigarette while standing on the scaffolding. And when the command sounded, he held the cigarette in his fist, but did not have time to release the smoke. There he stands with his cheeks puffed out.”

The photographer who shot this is a real pro. 1903! The picture fits the full strength of the Kexholm Life Guards Regiment! Negative – 110x60 cm – normal size!

For those who would like to see the photo better

The caption under the photo reads: “The Life Guards Kexholm Regiment of the Austrian Emperor was founded in 1710 by Emperor Peter the 1st. Since its founding, the regiment has participated in 20 wars, spent 50 of them and visited Sweden, Persia, Turkey, Germany, Denmark, England, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Romania and Bulgaria. On sea voyages he was in the Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic, German, Mediterranean, Black, Marmara and Caspian seas. He traversed the Russian land up and down to the borders with Asia. For his service he has insignia: 2 silver trumpets “for the capture of Germany in 1760” (there is a typo here in the original. Berlin was meant), the grenadier rank for distinction in 1812, insignia on caps “for distinction” for the battle at mountains Arey in 1814, double buttonholes on uniforms in 1815, transferred to the Guards Corps in 1831, ribbons on banners for 100 years of service in 1838, 4 St. George banners for the war in 1878, name Life Guards and St. Andrew's stars on hats in 1894.

There is another similar photograph in the collections of the Rivne Museum. On it are the Life Guards of St. Petersburg of King Frederick William III Regiment. By the way, it was taken in the same place as the famous photograph of the Life Guards Kexholm Regiment.

Exhibit of the Rivne Regional Museum of Local Lore. The original photograph measures 44x98cm. Most likely, it was printed from a glass negative using the contact method. The quality is absolutely amazing, the figure sadly smokes on the sidelines. After scanning with a resolution of 800dpi, cigarette butts are clearly visible in the grass in the foreground!

And this, they say, is the camera that was used to take this picture.