The Hermitage-2008 in Photographs

During the days of the Hermitage the Foyer of the Hermitage Theatre hosts a traditional exhibition of photographs telling about the events that have happened in the museum this year (from December 2007 till December 2008). This exhibition is neither a PR-event nor an official report on the work that has been carried out. The painters and photographers of the Hermitage tried to tell about the life of the museum, the people who work here, about its friends and partners by means of photographic art - day after day, the whole year, from December till December. The “December border” has not been chosen accidentally. This has to do with the Days of the Hermitage when the museum sums up the results of the year and makes plans for the next year.

The photographers show us that the State Hermitage is not only the largest museum of Russia. The Hermitage also organises educational and cultural programmes, concerts, plays, exhibitions which tend to become regular events of the public life of the Northern Capital. The museum also means the opening of the Hermitage halls after reconstruction, bold projects which bring to the world the knowledge about the historic and cultural significance of Russia. The Hermitage is a broad range of friends and sponsors including famous politicians, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, writers. And, finally, it is a large living collective ensuring the functioning and the development of the museum and carrying out fruitful scientific, exhibition and restoration work.

The focus of the photographs is the events and the people, events of different scope and character, from large-scale public events to small unofficial ones. The people are also very different: from kings and queens and princes of the royal blood, to ordinary people, visitors of the museum. Of course, not all the events worth mentioning and not all the participants of these events have been depicted at the photographs presented at the exhibition. The life of the Hermitage is impossible to fit into one exhibition.

The exhibition has been prepared by the staff of the Editing and Publishing Department of the State Hermitage, head of the department - Elena Zvyagintseva.