Visual Images of the Frontier: Tyva and Tuvans in the Expedition Photographs of P. E. Ostrovskikh (1897) in the collection of MAE RAS (the Kunstkamera)

This paper examines a collection of photographic negatives taken by Russian ethnographer P. E. Ostrovskikh during his 1897 expedition to the Uryankhai region, currently housed in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (the Kunstkamera). The paper explores the themes and genres represented in the photographs, as well as the photographic conventions employed, to reveal how frontier interactions between diverse political and ethnic groups, cultures, and lifestyles were visually constructed. The classification of recurring themes and subjects highlights the collection’s exceptional thematic breadth. These visual records depict the local autochthonous population, Chinese administrators, Buddhist clergy, and Russian settlers, alongside various aspects of everyday life and traditional culture, including environmental conditions, physical characteristics, housing, religious practices, and childhood rituals. The visual contrast between photographs of indigenous people taken in the style of “anthropological” or “ethnographic” photography, as it was understood during that period, and those of Russian settlers, captured in the aesthetics of studio portraits, highlights the unequal sociocultural status of the frontier groups. As a representative of Russian imperial science, Ostrovskikh used photography to document both the economic potential and the prospects for commercial development in the region, dedicating a significant portion of the collection to the economic activities of the Russian population.