The beginning of having no equal photo museum in the Urals Ad was laid in 1993, when the government of the Sverdlovsk region, having listened to the views of local historians and historians to abandon the intention to demolish one of the dying mansions in the center of Ekaterinburg, that belonged to the photographer Benjamin Leontievich Metenkov before the Revolution. Ekaterinburg History Museum took the the difficult and noble task of creating exposure to vacate the building. August 10, 1998 Museum of Photography “House Metenkov» (Ekaterinburg branch of the Museum of History) opened its doors to visitors.
Should all shots be gathered, captured in photographs of Ural photographer Benjamin Leontyevich Metenkov (1857 – 1933), you get an amazing variety of completeness and chronicle of the Urals. For almost four decades, with a camera in his hands he traveled all over the Urals , has issued hundreds of postcards and photo albums with the views of his native land , organized a successful trade of cameras, reagents, books and other photo accessories …
The old masters were based on the traditions of classical painting and the psychological portrait , interior , light, composition was for them not a mere formality, and the tools to reveal the rich inner world of man. In their memory, the museum recreates the atmosphere of the old photographic studio.
By the beginning of XX century, photographing was firmly established in the everyday life of Russians, but amateur photographer took the first steps. More surprising the discovery made by the descendants of Yekaterinburg doctor V. Paduchev. During reparation, the bag was found with 500 (!) original negatives. And here are the century waiting in the wings photos, as exhibited in the museum.