main

themes

links

guestbook

about

about author

russian

Neva Embankments
Winter Canal
The Central Squares
 Bridges
  PhotoCompArt
Churches
 Center
 

There is no city in the world more beautiful than St.Petersburg  - and there is no use disputing that. Those who are lucky to live here discover it step by step. A child looks up at St.Isaacs’ golden dome, rearing Klodt’s horses and Montferrant’s column.   As adolescent, one admires the sight of open bridges and gets dazed by white nights. In maturity, discovers St.Petersburg of  Dostoevsky, Colomna, curves of the rivers and channels... But it is very difficult to absorb this kaleidoscope of colors and forms, architectural styles and landscapes all at once whenever you arrive here for the first time. Endless line of masterpieces of bronze and cast iron, granite and marble cannot be grasped as a whole, and the mosaic disintegrates into tiny pieces...

Photography does an amazing thing - it crops everything unimportant, allowing to focus on the essential. Unexpected angle, carefully chosen light - and even Petersburgers themselves could be surprised: how could this be – walked past the spot the whole life, but seen nothing  of the kind!  

An uninitiated has no idea what sometimes stands behind such an unexpected sight - meters of  film, hours of waiting for the right light, "wizardry" with optics, paper, computer...

Modern technology saves photographer many a trouble - "clever" devices can focus and choose exposure by themselves, printing machines develop film and stamp pictures in minutes. But sometimes an experienced artist is far from pleased – the field for creativity narrows.

The Photographer pushes the button... and all the rest is done by heartless technology ... in its own way. But fortunately human thought and creative process cannot be stopped. For example, it were possible to increase the angle of vision - a human eye has one of more than 100 degrees, a typical camera – even less. But if by some wonder-working force a camera’s "eye" could open up to 360 degrees, you get a PANORAMA, giving an amazing effect that cannot be achieved by "old methods". 

It is just not possible to look forward, to both sides and backwards simultaneously!

But such photography allows to cover this width.  Though... sometimes you can scale up a small panoramic photograph - and then look at it by turning the head, creating the effect of a "window" or "balcony"...

At our Site you can see the St. Petersburg that you most probably have never seen before. Its embankments seem endless and enfilades of palace chambers look like pearls on a string. Streets are not clipped but stretch away in beautiful curves. Seen from the spire of Peter and Paul’s Cathedral, Neva and its channels, spanned by necklaces of bridges, create an illusion of flight.  City gains volume and depth, as if filled with air and light.  And even painfully familiar places gain new look in the CONTEXT of surrounding world. Makes one fall in love with them at new level of understanding, at another "swirl of the spiral". Obviously, the secret is that this "clever" technology is in the hands of the Master deeply in love with his city, admiring it and looking at it every day as if for the first time. The piece of his Soul is presented here for you now. Look at it, rejoice, wonder...

 Mikchail Rutman