n the 1860s Dmitri Yermakov (1846-1916) resided in Georgia. Whilst here he created rich, original and all-embracing photo-graphic chronicles. A major part of his pho-tographic legacy is held by the Georgian National Museum. Apart from catalogues, cameras and other pieces of apparatus,

his collection includes 17 albums containing 11,660 photos, 15,536 glass negatives and 27,655 stereo-scopic images.

Dmitri Yermakov was the son of an Italian architect and constructor living in Georgia, Lodovico Cambiag-gio. His actual birthplace is not certain. His mother came from a family belonging to the Molokan reli-gious sect, and the surname Yermakov is most often associated with the Molokans. Although he was born out of wedlock Lodovico Cambiaggio treated Dmitri as his legitimate son, and it was he who introduced him to the Georgian high society of the time, archi-tects, painters and scientists. Many distinguished individuals assisted him in the initial phases of his photographic work and helped him make a name for himself.

The earliest report of Dmitri Yermakov’s creative pursuits dates from 1877. The address section of the Caucasus Calendar refers to Yermakov as a member of refined, inspiring society. Later that year, in the 4th November issue of Kavkaz magazine, the sale of an ample collection of Yermakov’s photos was announced. These were taken during his 10 year-long journey through Turkey and displayed at the Mamikonianz house on Barnov Street.

Yermakov travelled extensively in the Caucasus and meticulously portrayed local customs, costumes, characters, scenery, fortresses, citadels, churches

and monasteries and other secular and religious items. These photographs constitute unique historic record of the ethnography, archaeology and culture of the Caucasus of the time.

In 1884 Yermakov presented his photos at the 10th exhibition of the Paris Photographers Society and achieved an unexpectedly grand success. The Paris newspapers feted him extensively. Yermakov subse-quently received an invitation from the Shah of Iran to become his personal photographer. on the back of these achievements he participated in numerous international exhibitions and won 36 highly-esteemed photographic prizes in Russia and other countries.

Dmitri Yermakov is remembered as a multifaceted personality. He collaborated closely with famous Georgian and Russian intellectuals. He also took part in numerous archaeological and ethnographic expeditions and documented historical monuments, frescos, religious items, books and scriptures of Georgian and Caucasian origin. This academic work won him a place as a distinguished photographer of the academic elite (including Duchess Uvarova, Ekvtime Takaishvili, Dimitri Bakradze and others).

Dmitri Yermakov, chronicler, master of documentary and fine art photography and successful entrepre-neur, tirelessly portrayed everything around him. His photographic legacy enables us to observe the passage of time, gaze at the characteristics of an epoch and perceive actuality and works of scientific value with the utmost precision. The geographi-cal scope of his photographs is astonishing, and includes Georgia, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Central Asia, Russia, Azerbaijan and far flung regions of the North Caucasus.

Dmitri YermakovOn July 15th, 2014, the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands, hosted an exhibition of photographer and art collector Dmitri Yermakov’s work to accompany the launch of a book on him published by the National Museum of Georgia and the Horizon Foundation.

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