Čiurlionis and Photography

In the summer of 1905 Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis made his unique photography album "Anapa". The photos were made at the foot of the Caucasus mountains, in the northern Black Sea coast, in Anapa, where Čiurlionis visited with his patrons the Wolman family. During this trip to the Caucasus and the Crimea, M. K. Čiurlionis created various photos, later the artist cropped and glued them to a small album and left inscription "Anapa.1905." on its canvas cover.
Album consists of 48 photographs: 39 were taken by M. K. Čiurlionis himself. The artist captured images of the Black Sea coast, sailing boats, the local people and their everyday life, cemeteries, and other objects. In the album we can find not only pictures taken by Čiurlionis were he captured beautiful nature, people he met along the journey, furthermore, his fellow-travelers made some photographs of Čiurlionis during journey through Caucasus as well.
Photos taken by Čiurlionis allow viewers to see everything through the artist's eyes, the images and the environment which inspired the artist’s creativity. Later the parallels of impressions of two marine landscapes - Baltic and Black sea and interpretations revived in his paintings and literary works.
In the last decade, photos of the album "Anapa" received special attention in the context of M. K. Čiurlionis’ creation. For a long time the photos were kept in the Čiurlionis‘ family archive and only from 2000 they (photocopies of original) are publically displayed in the permanent exhibition at National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum in Kaunas, but also in retrospectives and other exhibitions dedicated to the artist abroad.