Ermakov Dimitri

Dmitri Ermakov [1846, Tbilisi – 28 October (10 November) 1916, Tbilisi], was a photographer, painter, and collector. He began photography in 1866 and made a significant contribution to the study, collection, and documentation of the material cultural monuments of the Georgian people.

In 1870, he sent to the Russian Geographical Society in St. Petersburg a series of photographs taken in the Tortum district (Turkey, near Trabzon). These were the first photographic records of Georgian architectural monuments outside of Georgia.

In 1880, he opened a photo studio on Sasakhle Street in Tbilisi (now Shota Rustaveli Avenue). In 1897, he was elected a corresponding member of the Caucasian Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, in 1912 a founding member of the same society, and in 1907 a member of the Caucasian branch of the Moscow Archaeological Society.

In 1910, Ermakov took part in the Lechkhumi–Svaneti expedition organized by E. Takaishvili, during which he took nearly 900 photographs, including images of monuments that were later destroyed.

With great passion and high professionalism, Ermakov captured on film old Tbilisi’s cityscapes, streets, squares, individual buildings, workshops, taverns, and representatives of various social classes. His work provides a vivid picture of Georgian life at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.

Ermakov’s photographic negatives are preserved today in the Georgian National Museum and the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts.

Literature: ინასარიძე შ., საქართველოს მესურათხატენი, თბ., 2002; Герсамия Т., Творческое наследие Дмитрия Ермакова, «Советское фото», 1985, №12; მისივე, Dmitry Jermakov, Zeitzeugnisse einer vergangenen Epoche, «Photographie», 1987, N10.

T. Gersamia

Z. Shavianidze