William Carrick

Scottish photographer, painter. Born in Edinburgh to Scottish timber merchant Andrew Carrick and his wife Janet Lauder (1827). Moved with his parents to Kronstadt (1828) and St Petersburg (1844). Studied painting under Pyotr Basin and architecture under Alexander Brullov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1844–50). Awarded the title of non-class artist (1853). Studied watercolour painting in Rome (1853–56). Briefly returned to St Petersburg (1856), where he took up photography and worked for a portrait photographer called Ivan Hoch (1856). Studied photography under James Good Tunny in Edinburgh (1856–57) and returned to St Petersburg (1857), where he opened a photographic studio with John MacGregor at 19 Malaya Morskaya Street (1859). Moved to No. 1/6, 5th Line of Vasilyevsky Island (1860s). Photographed urban types and folk scenes in St Petersburg, Novgorod Province and Finland (1860–65). Decorated by Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich (1862) and worked for the court painter Count Mihály Zichy (1865). Secretly married the nihilist Alexandra Markelova (1868), who gave birth to his sons Dmitry (1867) and Valery (1869). Travelled widely across Russia, taking ethnographic photographs in Simbirsk, Yarsolavl, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan Provinces (1871, 1875, 1878). Appointed photographer of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1876), where he opened a studio. Died of pneumonia in St Petersburg (1878). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1869). Contributed to the Pan-Russian Exhibition of Manufacturing in St Petersburg (1869, bronze medal), Polytechnic Exhibition in Moscow (1872, silver medal) Anthropological Exhibition in Moscow (1879), Exhibition of Photographs of the Paintings of Court Artist Professor Mihály Zichy by the Photographer Carrick in St Petersburg (1880), international exhibitions of photography in Paris (1876, hors concours) and London (1878, hors concours) and posthumous one-man shows at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh (1987, 2009–10) and the ROSPHOTO Museum and Exhibition Centre in St Petersburg (2010–11).