Memorial house of the photographer N.P. Andreev

The building was transferred to the Serpukhov Museum of History and Art in 2002. At the same time, the exhibition "Memorial House of photographer N. Andreev" was opened here.

House No. 39 on Moskovskaya Street was acquired in 1900 by the father of photographer Nikolai Andreev, Serpukhov merchant Andreev Platon Andreevich. In 1909, an extension was built to it, which housed a photo studio that became famous throughout the photographic world. Photographs were created here that glorified their author and the city of Serpukhov and were included in the golden fund of world pictorial photography.

Nikolai Andreev received letters and invitations to participate in international exhibitions, congratulations and words of appreciation from all over Russia and other countries. Here Nikolai Andreev experienced the "golden age" of his work, the happiest and most tragic moments of his life.

Nikolai Platonovich Andreev gained worldwide fame in the 1920s by participating in international and domestic photographic exhibitions: numerous awards, critical reviews, and magazine publications accompanied the success of the Russian photographer around the world.

In the 1920s, Nikolai Andreev was recognized as an unsurpassed master of the photographic landscape of central Russia, and his artistic portraits were highly appreciated by critics. At the same time, the photographer continues to take commercial photography in his studio. According to the memoirs of close relatives and family acquaintances, N.Andreev's photography factory, located in the house, existed until the early 1930s. But after the revolution, tenants moved into the house, and the photographer's family occupied the second floor of the house, and in 1934, the photographer and his two children, Valentin and Nikolai (his wife Varvara died in 1932), were evicted to a communal apartment.

After the eviction from the Andreev family's house, the photo pavilion was demolished, the ground floor eventually turned into an uninhabited and damp basement, communal apartments were housed in the house for a long time.

In the early 1990s, the house became a place of pictorial photography revival - the N. Andreev Center for Photographic Culture, created by enthusiasts and fans of Nikolai Andreev's work, was located here.

After the transfer of the building to the Serpukhov Museum, the house received the status of a monument of cultural heritage of regional significance (Security Obligation No. 02-05 dated January 11, 2005). The exhibition recreated the atmosphere of the time in which the family members of the master lived and worked, raised children, and received guests and visitors of Nikolai Platonovich's photo workshop.

Currently, the Andreev Memorial House is closed to the public due to its dilapidated condition and is awaiting restoration. But the yard lives. According to everyone who has been there, the atmosphere of the place is special. It is here that the events within the framework of the Lens of Russia festival take place. This project reveals the photographic heritage of the region, gathering its diversity in one place, creates a cultural and educational environment for different generations of admirers of photography and popularizes the personality of the outstanding Serpukhovich, a representative of a merchant family, a master of pictorial photography - Nikolai Andreev. The diverse format of the events and holiday programs will create new opportunities for photo artists and photographers of different generations to meet and communicate with the audience and with each other. According to the organizers, the "Lens of Russia" is also intended to breathe life into the place where the master of pictorialism lived and worked and which invariably continues to attract and inspire masters of light painting.