French on Amur" exhibition

Since mid-July, the Grodekovsky Museum has been hosting a photo exhibition "Frenchman on Amur" to mark the 180th anniversary of the first photographer of Khabarovsk, Emil Nino.

The exhibition presents 16 copies of unique photos by Emile Nino from the funds of Grodekovsky Museum, dated 1896. The photos depict residents of Priamurye in everyday and festive clothes, views of old Khabarovsk.

Who is Emile Nino?

Emiliy Frantsevich Nino (1845-1923) - French subject, merchant of the 2nd guild, the first professional Khabarovsk photographer.

In 1865, two Frenchmen Emile and Eugene Nino arrived to Nikolaevsk, the capital of Primorsky region, via China. The brothers were engaged in commerce, purchasing furs and did not plan to stay in uninhabited places for a long time. But the business-minded and energetic brothers, having realized the prospects of the region, obtained a residence permit and seriously engaged in trade.

Initially, the Nino brothers wanted to stay in the Far East only for a while, to accumulate capital for a secure old age. But Emil was won over by the Amur expanses, the locals, the settlers with their traditions.

Emile was also an honorary member of the Paris Geographical Society and a professional photographer. He was able to combine commercial affairs with photography. Traveling along the Amur River in a small boat, he stopped in almost all villages located on the shore and put up a flag with the inscription "Photographer". He photographed local people, their way of life, nature. He was paid with fish or furs for his photos.

Emil Nino together with his family in 1880 moved permanently to Khabarovsk. Here he builds a house on Popovskaya Street. In 1884, by permission of the military governor of Primorsky region P.F. Unterberger, Emil received the right to open a photo studio in his own house and to print business cards. Emil did not give up trading: in Nikolaevsk and in the village of Troitskoye he found agents who continued to take orders for Parisian goods on his behalf from local residents.

Emil Frantsevich was a member of the photographic society in Khabarovsk, founded in 1894, and of the fifteen members was the only professional. He participated in exhibitions organized in the city in 1899 and 1913, and was awarded prizes for the best pictures.

Emil Nino also wished to contribute to the collection of the Museum of the Priamur Department of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (now the N.I. Grodekov HCM).

In the inventory book of receipts there is an entry dated February 10, 1894 that E. Nino donated 260 copies of photographs. These are views of villages, stanitsa, mines and portraits of the inhabitants of Priamurye and Transbaikalia. Many photos are annotated and dated by the author with the obligatory "E. Nino" or "E. N". The first business cards were printed in Paris.

Gradually, the photo salon expanded. Emil attracted his sons to his business. Until 1904 E. Nino owned the photo salon alone, and then the business became common with his sons, and the inscription on the business cards was changed to "E. Nino and his sons". Nino with his sons". Alexei Emilievich Nino continued his father's business and became a professional photographer.