ალექსანდრე როინაშვილი/ Alexandre Roinashvili

Alexander Roinashvili, one of the founders of professional photography in Georgia, moved from Dusheti to Tbilisi in the beginning of the 1860s, when he was 14, and became an apprentice of Khlamov, a renowned photographer of the Tbilisi of that time. It is precisely in the artistic atmosphere of Khlamovs photographic studio that Alexander Roinashvili became an artist and the first professional Georgian photographer.

In 1875, Roinashvili opened his own photo studio in Tbilisi, on Palace Street. It is also at that period that he developed a passion for archaeology and that he started collecting antiquities.

With his pictures of ancient monuments and landscapes, with his portraits of public figures and writers, Roinashvili made photography popular among Georgians, who used his pictures as an important decorative component of their interior.

Alexander Roinashvili then thought about creating a mobile museum of Georgian antiquities, for which he bought several hundred exhibits. He continued to look for such objects in Dagestan, where he had worked for a couple of years.

In 1887, Roinashvili established this mobile museum and took it to Astrakhan, Saratov, and then Saint Petersburg. Together with many photographic and stereoscopic images depicting Georgian antiquities, he exhibited old weaponry and military equipment, copper and silver

kitchenware, a numismatic collection, and other items from Georgian and oriental cultures. The exhibitions were very successful, so Roinashvili envisaged to take his mobile museum abroad, something that did not eventually happen.

Alexander Roinashvili was one of the initiators of the Tbilisi Society of Amateur Photographers, the first meeting of which was held in his studio, in April 1893. He was also a member of every active cultural or public organization in Tbilisi. He published articles, arranged theater rehearsals in his atelier, gave out books to villages libraries and schools, always hurrying to do as much as he could He was 52 when he died in 1989.

The board of administrators of the Society for the Spreading of Literacy decided to keep the photographic studio as it was and continue its functioning with the existing staff. Until June 1899, it was headed by Vassil Roinashvili, before he moved to Telavi, taking a part of the studios photographic devices with him. After a couple of years, other colleagues left the studio too.

A PUBLICATION OF TBILISI MARRIOTT HOTEL & COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT TBILISI70

saqarTveloSi profesionaluri fotografiis erT-erTi fuZemdebeli, aleqsandre roinaSvili, me-19 saukunis 60-iani wlebis dasawyisSi, 14 wlis asakSi duSeTidan TbilisSi Camovida da imxanad TbilisSi cnobil fotograf xlamovs daudga mowafed. swored xlamovis fotosaxelosnos mxatvrul atmosferoSi Camoyalibda al. roinaSvili rogorc mxatvari da pirveli qarTveli profesionali fotografi.

1875 wels aleqsandre roinaSvili Tbilisis centrSi, sasaxlis quCaze xsnis sakuTar foto-saxelosnos. amave wlidan iwyeba roinaSvilis gataceba arqeologiiTa da siZveleebis SegrovebiT.

a. roinaSvilis gadaRebuli istoriuli Zeglebis xedebiT da cnobili qarTveli sazogado moRvaweebisa da mwerlebis portretebiT Sevida fotografia qarTuli ojaxebis saxlebSi, rogorc interieris mniSvnelovani nawili.

aleqsandre roinaSvils hqonda idea Seeqmna qarTuli siZveleebis moZravi muzeumi, risTvisac man ramdenime aseuli eqsponati SeiZina. eqsponatTa Ziebas is agrZelebda daRestanSic, sadac ramdenime wlis manZilze muSaobda.

1887 wels roinaSvilma Seqmna kidec moZravi muzeumi, waiRo igi q. astraxanSi, saratovSi, xolo Semdeg peterburgSi. saqarTvelos siZveleTa amsaxvel mraval fotografiul da stereoskopul fotosuraTebTan erTad gamofenili iyo Zveleburi iaraRi da samxedro akazmuloba, spilenZis da vercxlis WurWeli, numizmatikuri koleqcia da sxva qarTuli da aRmosavluri kulturis amsaxveli nimuSebi. gamofenebs didi warmateba hqondaT, ramac roinaSvils afiqrebina Tavisi moZravi

muzeumis sazRvargareT gatana. es Canafiqri ganuxorcielebeli darCa.

a. roinaSvili iyo erT-erTi iniciatori Tbilisis moyvarul fotografTa sazogadoebis Seqmnisa, romlis damfuZnebeli Sekreba Catarda mis fotoatelieSi 1893 wlis aprilSi. igi aseve iricxeboda TbilisSi moqmed yvela kulturuli da sazogadoebrivi organizaciis wevrad. aqveynebda publicistur statiebs, awyobda Teatralur repeticiebs Tavis atelieSi, ufasod ugzavnida wignebs soflis biblioTekebsa da skolebs, igi Cqarobda gaekeTebina rac SeiZleba meti... misi sicocxle 1898 wels, 52 wlis asakSi Sewyda.

wera -kiTxvis gamavrcelebeli sazogadoebis gamgeobam gadawyvita ucvlelad gaegrZelebina fotosaxelosnos muSaoba Zveli SemadgenlobiT. 1899 wlis ivnisamde mas xelmZRvanelobda vasil roinaSvili, Semdeg igi sacxovreblad gadavida TelavSi da saxelosnodan Tan waiRo fotoaparaturis nawili. ramdenime xnis Semdeg fotosaxelosno sxva TanamSromlebmac datoves.

wera -kiTxvis gamavrcelebeli sazogadoebis gamgeoba aSkarad ver arTmevda Tavs memkvidreobiT miRebul fotosaxelosnos xelmZRvanelobas.

1905 wels fotosaxelosno a. roinaSvilis mier gadaRebul negativebTan erTad gadavida cnobili Tbiliseli fotografis dimitri ermakovis sakuTrebaSi.

redaqcia madlobas moaxsenebs saqarTvelos erovnuli muzeumis dimitri ermakovis fonds mowodebuli fotomasalisTvis da aseve aleqsandre roinaSvili wignis avtors, lika

mamacaSvils.

The board of administrators of the Society for the Spreading of Literacy was clearly not able to efficiently run the photographic studio they inherited.

In 1905, the studio and the negatives of Alexander Roinashvili became the property of the renowned Tbilisian photographer Dimitri Ermakov.

The editorial board expresses its gratitude to the Dimitri Ermakov Fund of the Georgian National Museum for providing us these pictures and also to the author of the album Alexander Roinashvili, Lika Mamatsashvili.


Documents

ალექსანდრე როინაშვილი/ Alexandre Roinashvili