Piter's Retro Photo Salon

In St. Petersburg there is a photo studio that takes analog photos using a method known as ambrotype, which has its origins in the 1850s. Images are captured on a glass plate with a wooden photo camera. A crisp portrait requires the subject(s) to stand motionless for 20 seconds. A century and a half ago, such a portrait might cost the client a month's salary. Today prices start at about R1,500 ($15) for a small portrait.

The photo studio is located in the Karl Bulla Museum at Nevsky 154, in the attic of a building that has been a center for St. Petersburg photography since before the Bolshevik Revolution. Kristina, the studio's founder, used to design ventilation and heating systems, but has been interested in photography since she was a child. After seeing some old portraits, she got training in how to make ambrotypes. There are, she said, about 100 people in Russia making prints this way.

After completing her training, Kristina had to find a camera – no easy task. Prices for vintage format cameras can range from R15,000-1,000,000 million, and often the old cameras have to be repaired.

"I was lucky," Kristina said, "I found an inexpensive old camera that was German or English. Then I bought a lens made 1939. With this, in early December 2023, I took photos of my parents for their 40-year marriage anniversary. They were my guinea pigs."

At the end of 2023, Kristina's brother, Eduard, who had retired from the police, learned that his sister was interested in ambrotype photography, and then became interested in vintage equipment. The siblings decided to join forces and open a photo studio for tourists in Vyborg, where Eduard lives.

"Usually people do this for themselves or occasionally shoot in private studios," Kristina said. "No one works with tourists en masse. And so we decided to try to occupy this niche. Initially, we opened up in Vyborg, and not St. Petersburg, because it would not be so scary. In a small tourist town, it is easier to deal with the bumps. In the future, in a big city, you can always correct your mistakes."

A brother and sister opened their photo studio in the old part of the city — on Krasnoflotskaya, 4A, next to Krepostnaya Street and Vyborg Castle. Their first clients had to be lured in off the street.

"It was difficult," she said, "because we had no one to spy on. After all, no one else works with tourists in Russia. I didn’t know why not. But now I understand. For a photo shoot, people usually put on makeup and get ready, but tourists on excursions come in wearing what is most comfortable for walking around the city. If I knew how hard it is to raise people’s spirits, I would have thought twice."

Yet she also noted that the advantage of having a photo studio in Vyborg is that people on vacation are captured with their whole family or their whole traveling party. "For the family, this is a great event in their lives! The children will grow up, and they will remember how they were photographed with their parents. This will be a part of their history."

Kristina jokingly calls her St. Petersburg photo studio "anti-business." In the year since it opened, it has not managed to break even: they have tapped into their savings to keep the business going. But the experienced ambrotypist feels that it's not about doing a job, but enjoying her hobby.

"Probably the coolest thing is that my idea, my prank, has been a success. Ambrotyping is a rather rare and unique thing. When people visit, they say they have never seen anything like this. And I enjoy it!"

Originally published by Paper Paper.