Snapshots of the past
Nicholas Artamonoff was a college administrator, a public works official, the son of a Russian diplomat, and an amateur photographer. A private man, he also became an unlikely champion at the center of a new online exhibit created by researchers at Dumbarton Oaks. The Nicholas V. Artamonoff Collection, presented by the Image Collections and Fieldwork Archive (ICFA) at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, in Washington, D.C., features more than 500 photos that Artamonoff took in Istanbul and at archaeological sites across western Turkey from 1935 through 1945. The photos document sites and monuments, many of which have since fallen into disrepair or have disappeared entirely, which adds to the collection’s historical value. To Günder Varinlioğlu, Byzantine assistant curator of the ICFA, the body of work reveals a talented amateur who was intensely interested in photographing his surroundings. Although Artamonoff was not formally trained as an architect or art historian either, the...