The Karl Bulla Foundation for Historical Photography

The house at 54 Nevsky Prospekt can be called the “ancestral home” of St. Petersburg photography. For more than a century and a half a photo shop has been continuously working there; the owners have been changing, but photography continues!

Karl Karlovich Bulla, a merchant of the second guild, bought and retrofit the two upper floors of the house in 1907-1908, and a sign “Photograph of K. K. Bulla” appeared on it.

In the Soviet years, “Photography No. 1” located there.

By the end of the 1990s, the premises were in critical condition and needed urgent repairs.

On the initiative and at the expense of the new owner, Valentin Evgenyevich Elbek, a major reconstruction was carried out in the premises, which made it possible to preserve the memorial of Karl Bulla’s photo studio for the city.

The opening of the newly recreated Karl Bulla photo studio was timed to and took place during the celebration of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg.

The Karl Bulla Foundation for Historical Photography was established in St. Petersburg in 2005 to study, preserve, and popularize Russian photography. Since 1991, the President and founder of the Fund, Valentin Evgenievich Elbek, has been forming a private collection of photographs of Russian and foreign photographers.

The collection consists of genuine photographs, prints from the archives of St. Petersburg, postcards, and antique publications. All of the above captures the period from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries. The collection contains photographs of mostly all photographers from the specified period who lived and worked in St. Petersburg and other Russian cities. Photographs of masters, whose photo studios were located at 54 Nevsky from 1858 onward, are presented separately.