a Traditional Chaadyr Dwelling.
This collection of strange & slightly unnerving early 20th century colour(ed) postcards made by photographer Sergei Ivanovich Borisov (1859-1935) in the Altai Mountains region of southern Siberia early in the 20th century. Borisov was born into a family of serfs in Simbirsk (present-day Ulyanovsk) and forced to work as a child. In the late 1880s he moved to the city of Barnaul in Altayskiy Kray, where in 1894 he opened a photography studio. This studio later became the largest and most popular in the city. In 1907, Borisov began a four year expedition into the Altay Mountains. He took around 1,500 photographs during this mammoth trek, which, upon his return to Barnaul, he presented to the public using a magic lantern. The photographs remote corners of the Altai Mountains and the Altai and indigenous Kazakh people. Borisov offered the photographs to European publishers for the production of postcards. The there are two series of color postcards. The first series was issued by the Swedish printing company Granberg Society in Stockholm so someone, at least made Borisov’s years in the wilderness worthwhile. but it is not known where the second series was published. This small edit is from both series. The postcards are housed in the Altai State Regional Studies Museum srchives in Barnaul and were digitized in the early 2000s for the Meeting of Frontiers digital library project.
Far from being high art, these images are worthwhile as unique examples of a miniscule niche genre: turn of the century Southern Siberian Retro Kitch.
a Tributary of the Chernaia Berel River.
Clothing of a Married Woman) with a Horse.
The Area of Airdash Between the Villages of Uznezia and Cheposh.
