In this photo the photographer captured a merchant Leonid Deribezov along with the employees of his Trading House. The author included the photos of Trading House’s interiors in the photo.
Such type of anniversary photos was a typical part of domestic culture during art nouveau period. A collage was often made up of paintings symbolizing the main character’s merits. There were various samples of such pictures in the photo ateliers.
Ivan Nezhelsky, a Borisoglebsk-born photographer, is an author of the photo. The picture was taken in 1915. The photographer changed the course of photo history of his native town. While previously photographers from the bigger cities were invited, with appearance of its own specialist there was no longer any necessity to do so. Ivan Nezhelsky came from a peasant family. In 1888 he founded his own photo atelier. He became famous for his portrait photography and various city views. It’s notable that the wooden house where the photographer used to live survived to this day.
Trading House was built in downtown Borisoglebsk where Dvoryanskaya street and Bolshaya street crossed. At the moment the streets are named Sovetskaya and Svobody. Up until 1917 there were shops selling lingerie, textiles, and fur on the ground floor. The owner’s apartment was situated on the upper floor.
Apart from his commercial activities Leonid Deribezov was into philanthropy, he invested into reconstruction of the iconostasis and the church of saint John the Evangelist at Technical Railway College.
When the merchant was under medical treatment at Tinaksky Gryazy in Astrakhan Governorate, he discovered that the hospital’s management was looking for the money to construct a church. He decided to give an iconostasis as a present to Saint Pantaleon Church in Tinaki, Astrakhan. Leonid Deribezov’s letter to the administrator of mud cures institution Hippolyte Deminsky written in March 24, 1909, bears evidence of this fact. The letter is now in the funds of The State Archive of Astrakhan Region.
However, the events of 1917 led do dismal consequences for the merchant’s family. They had to leave their native town. The businessman’s property was nationalized.
