Who invented the lightbulb? Here's a question that will certainly spark discussion! (pun intended). In addressing this question, historians Robert Friedel and Paul Israel list 22 inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Thomas Edison. They conclude that Edison's version was able to outstrip the others because of a combination of three factors: an effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others... Continue Reading →
The town of Vyborg lies on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of the Vyborg Bay, 130 km (81 miles) to the northwest of St. Petersburg and 38 km (24 miles) south of Russia's border with Finland, where the Saimaa Canal enters the Gulf of Finland. The town has changed hands several times in history, most recently in 1944 when the Soviet Union captured it from Finland during World... Continue Reading →
Ok, I'll admit right away that this is not a strictly Russia-only culture shock, but coming from Western Europe, a shock it is nonetheless! A while ago I went to take picture for the completion of a new, architecturally very interesting building in Moscow. The image you see above is not that of some guy... Continue Reading →
If you can read Cyrillic, you will already have noticed that the town's name is Gagarin, in honour of the first human to journey into outer space: Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin or simply Yuri Gagarin. The Soviet cosmonaut was born on March 9th, 1934, in the nearby village of Klushino and after his death in 1968 (when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting crashed) the city was renamed in his honour (and I suspect, but that's just my speculation, also because the former name of Gzhatsk - Гжатск - was all but unpronounceable!).
This is Успенская церковь, or Church of the Assumptionon on Kremlin Street in Suzdal, Russia. On the outside it is painted in dark red, with white edges that underline the original, irregular architecture.
One of the most interesting (non)tourist attractions in Saint Petersburg, especially for all people coming from warmer climates, is the "beach" surrounding The Peter and Paul Fortress' external walls, on the Neva river. As a photographer, I thing this is such a great spot to try and capture "the essence of Saint Petersburg".
Last year the Russian Patriarch Kirill and Roman Catholic Pope Francis had an historic meeting. It was the first time a pontiff and head of the Russian Orthodox church had met since the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity split apart nearly 1,000 years ago. To celebrate the occasion and to strengthen the friendship between Christians, they agreed... Continue Reading →
As I wrote yesterday, a good picture should always tell a story. So, in this respect, today's picture in not a good photo, as it does not tell much of a story on its own. But this time it comes with a real story. And I think it's a story that deserves to be told... Continue Reading →
Suzdal is one of the oldest Russian towns and the smallest of the Russian Golden Ring towns. In spite of being a very popular tourist destination, for Russians and foreigners alike, it is still possible to visit Suzdal in the winter time and experience the quite life of a rural town in the evening, when locals go... Continue Reading →
Russia Through The Lens 