#Romanovs100 collaborated with photographers using the technique of ambrotype to create four unique images about the Romanovs to commemorate the lives of the last Russian emperor’s family on the centenary of their execution.
Ambrotype photography was introduced as early as the 1850s – it’s different from what we know today because the print is created on glass, not paper. Similar to a Polaroid shot, each image is unique and cannot be reproduced, as opposed to film photography when one negative exposure may produce numerous positive images.
The concept behind each image was to create a set for the family members including objects they might have owned with each slide representing Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, Tsarevich Alexei and his four sisters, or OTMA, as they called themselves as an acronym of the initials of their given names – Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia.
"We wanted the photographs to turn out sensual and real. So that they could become more than just still life images, but bring out the character's personality and at the same time tell the tale of a heart no longer beating." Photographer Ivan Mikhailovskiy described the image-making process to RT.
"We kept in mind that we were creating a set for royalty, but we wanted to let their human side shine through as well." Mikhailovskiy added.
#Romanovs100 is a history photo-puzzle dedicated to Russia’s last Emperor, Nicholas II, and his family. In 2017, during the realization of #1917LIVE, the team came across thousands of photographs from the Romanovs’ private archives.
Nicholas II was a keen photographer and his family followed suit: his four daughters took numerous photographs of each other, their extended family and close circle. Their mother, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, was often photographed with a unique panoramic camera in her hands.
Over the course of 100 days #Romanovs100 distributed this archive in a non-linear photo-essay via four social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, publishing some very rare, and in certain cases previously-unseen, photographs of the Romanovs’ private lives.
“The #Romanovs100 Twitter project has honoured the family in an extraordinary way, opening up the personal photographic archives of the Romanovs and depicting the final years of their extraordinary lives through social media. This project has permitted this period of history to be accessible and exciting, while venerating such a tremendous loss.” Historian and author Helen Rappaport told BBC History Magazine online about her collaboration with #Romanovs100.
The project’s social media phase culminates on the July 17, marking 100 years since the family, their pets and closest staff were killed by the Bolsheviks.
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