Tonight at NOMA, Tulane professor William Brumfield will give a lecture on the fascinating cultural heritage of the Russian North, defined as the area around the White Sea in the far northwestern part of the country–ancient monasteries, remarkable wooden churches, and forgotten villages–all part of a unique cultural legacy.

• 6 pm: Lecture: “Architecture at the End of the Earth: Photographing the Russian North” with Prof. William Brumfield (book signing to follow)

About William Brumfield

As a student of Russian literature and history, and as a photographer and historian of Russian architecture, William Craft Brumfield has traveled to Russia since the summer of 1970. After earning his doctorate from the Slavic Department at the University of California, Berkeley, Brumfield taught at the University of Wisconsin and at Harvard University (Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages). He is currently Professor of Slavic Studies at Tulane University.

Among his books are: Gold in Azure: One Thousand Years of Russian Architecture (1983), The Origins of Modernism in Russian Architecture (1991), A History of Russian Architecture (1993; chosen a “Notable Book of the Year” by The New York Times Book Review), Lost Russia: Photographing the Ruins of Russian Architecture (1995; 2015) and Landmarks of Russian Architecture: A Photographic Survey (1997). All of these books are illustrated with his own photographs. Brumfield has also published 26 books in Russia, most of which are dedicated to Russia’s architectural heritage. His most recent book is Architecture at the End of the Earth: Photographing the Russian North.

Brumfield’s photographs, part of the collection of the Photographic Archives of the National Gallery of Art, have been exhibited in museums in this country and in Russia. His work has been supported by the Library of Congress and by numerous fellowships and awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and a NEH Fellowship at the National Humanities Center. In 2002 Brumfield was elected to the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences, and in 2006 he was elected honorary member of the Russian Academy of the Fine Arts.

About Architecture at the End of the Earth: Photographing the Russian North

Carpeted in boreal forests, dotted with lakes, cut by rivers, and straddling the Arctic Circle, the region surrounding the White Sea, which is known as the Russian North, is sparsely populated and immensely isolated. It is also the home to architectural marvels, as many of the original wooden and brick churches and homes in the region’s ancient villages and towns still stand. Featuring nearly two hundred full color photographs of these beautiful centuries-old structures, Architecture at the End of the Earth is the most recent addition to William Craft Brumfield’s ongoing project to photographically document all aspects of Russian architecture.

The architectural masterpieces Brumfield photographed are diverse: they range from humble chapels to grand cathedrals, buildings that are either dilapidated or well cared for, and structures repurposed during the Soviet era. Included are onion-domed wooden churches such as the Church of the Dormition, built in 1674 in Varzuga; the massive walled Transfiguration Monastery on Great Solovetsky Island, which dates to the mid-1550s; the Ferapontov-Nativity Monastery’s frescoes, painted in 1502 by Dionisy, one of Russia’s greatest medieval painters; nineteenth-century log houses, both rustic and ornate; and the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Vologda, which was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible in the 1560s. The text that introduces the photographs outlines the region’s significance to Russian history and culture.