Karelin, Andrey Osipovich (1837 – 1906) — photographer and photo-artist.
He was born on 4 (16) July 1837 in the Soldatskaya Sloboda of Tambov Governorate. He was the illegitimate son of a state peasant woman, Tatyana Ivanovna Karelina. Karelin began working at the age of ten, apprenticed to icon painters in Tambov. In 1857 he enrolled at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts and at the same time began to study photography. In 1864 he completed his studies and was awarded the title of Free Non-Class Artist.
In 1865 A. O. Karelin and his family moved from Saint Petersburg to Kostroma, where he practiced portrait and religious painting and gave drawing lessons. After 1866, together with his three children and his second wife, Olga Grigoryevna, née Lermontova (a relative of M. Yu. Lermontov), he moved to Nizhny Novgorod, where he opened a studio called "Photography and Painting" at the Nizhny Novgorod Yarmarka. Its visitors included V. G. Korolenko, M. Gorky, Ya. G. Polonsky, D. I. Mendeleev, and many others.
Karelin became one of the first masters to work at the intersection of painting and photography. The first experiment in this synthesis of the arts was the album Nizhny Novgorod, created in 1870 in collaboration with the celebrated landscape painter I. I. Shishkin, who colored Karelin's photographs in watercolor. In 1873 Karelin took part in the 6th World Exhibition of Artistic Photography in Vienna. An enormous success awaited the photographer at the International Photography Exhibition in Edinburgh in 1876.
Photographers from Europe and America competed at that exhibition, submitting around 6,000 photographs displayed without attribution. The members of the jury were divided in their opinions: two works were judged worthy of the gold medal. Their astonishment can be imagined when, upon opening the envelopes bearing the authors' names, they discovered that both photographs belonged to a little-known photographer from Russia, Andrey Karelin.
That same year he received medals at the Special Exhibition of the French Photographic Society in Paris and at the World International Exhibition in Philadelphia. A. O. Karelin was admitted as a member of the French National Academy of Arts, awarded the gold medal and diploma of the French Photographic Society, and an honorary diploma of the French National Academy of Agriculture, Manufacture and Commerce.
The work of the Nizhny Novgorod photo-artist received fitting recognition in Russia as well: in 1879 Emperor Alexander III awarded him a gold medal to be worn on the neck on the Stanislav ribbon "for useful participation in the Paris World Exhibition."
In 1886 A. O. Karelin published a photographic album entitled Views of Nizhny Novgorod, and in 1887, near the selo of Yuryevets, he succeeded in capturing a total solar eclipse on camera.
From 1892 the photographer's studio was housed in the building of A. I. Strepetova on Zhukovskaya Street (now Minin Street) and was open to visitors who wished to view his collection of antiques and period clothing.
In 1895 Andrey Osipovich became one of the founders of the Society of Historical Painting Artists, and the following year took part in the 16th All-Russian Trade, Industrial and Art Exhibition.
In 1897 Karelin relocated the "Photography and Painting" studio to Varvarskaya Street., to the building of M. N. Shchelokov (now No. 8a). From 1898, the studio produced glass slides for magic lanterns used in educational institutions and at public readings. The same year was marked by a notable event: A. O. Karelin's private collection was opened to public view. In 1902 he exhibited paintings at the 2nd Nizhny Novgorod Art Exhibition; he was awarded a diploma by the First International Exhibition of the Moscow Art-Photography Society; and his photographs of slums and their inhabitants were used in the staging of Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths at the Moscow Art Theatre.
In 1905 Karelin opened a studio called "Edinburgh Photography" in the building of N. Kh. Kurepin on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya St. (now No. 4).
Until the end of his life, Andrey Osipovich Karelin worked prolifically: he photographed, participated in exhibitions, and taught aspiring artists and photographers (one of his pupils was the celebrated Russian photographer Maxim Petrovich Dmitriev). He was a member of various societies: the Nizhny Novgorod Gubernatorial Scholarly Archival Commission (from 1887), a full member and board member of the Nizhny Novgorod Circle of Enthusiasts of Physics and Astronomy (from 1888), the Imperial Russian Technical Society (from 1895), the Russian Photographic Society in Moscow (from 1895), the Imperial Society of Enthusiasts of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography (from 1897), and the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Art Lovers (from 1901).
Andrey Osipovich contributed greatly to the development of Russian and world photographic art. He was a passionate collector and ethnographer who spent many years assembling objects of art and folk applied crafts. A. O. Karelin died on 31 July (12 August) 1906 and was buried in the cemetery of the Krestovozdvizhensky Convent.
The photographer's work was unreservedly recognized by his contemporaries not only in Russia but throughout Europe and America, and his pieces were admired at all-Russian and international exhibitions. An inventor of unique photographic techniques, he introduced much that was new to the art of photography — the staging of mise-en-scènes, lighting effects — as well as to photographic technology itself.