Authors

Discussion

This research is a part of my larger project about photography, Siberian exploration, and visual history of the late Russian empire. It examines visual representations of the Altai region in works of botanist, glaciologist, geographer, and Tomsk University professor Vasilii V. Sapozhnikov (1861-1924). In this paper I focus on how Sapozhnikov in his expeditions to Altai in the 1890s-1900s explored, charted, named, and photographed Altai, “discovering” and "opening up" this part of Siberia -- one of the borderlands of the late Russian empire for an academic community and public,. This paper shows how topography and photography were linked in the scientific expeditions, creating different layers, meanings, and power of landscape. Sapozhnikov’s writings based on his travel diaries and research, expeditionary photographs and maps contributed to incorporation of Altai into imperial space and space of scientific exploration.