Most important projects in ROSPHOTO are the ones that unite exhibition with research. Such projects make progress not only in expositional work but also in scientific research. Moreover, they often result in publications that regard photography from the angle of history and art history. Among most important examples of such exhibitions are ‘Views of Crimea’ by Vassily Sokornov, an outstanding landscape photographer, and ‘French Photography from the Archive of the Institute of Material Culture at the Russian Academy of Sciences’. Such projects, bearing an undoubted scientific value, are usually conducted by ROSPHOTO in collaboration with the Russian National Library (St.-Petersburg), Musee d’Orsay (Paris), European Institute of Restoration and Graphics (Paris), Musee de l’Elysee (Lausanne, Switzerland) and other important research and museum centres.
In 2006, the State Russain Centre of Photography entered the Museums Association of Russia.
Constantly expanding its collection (by now approx. ten thousand items), ROSPHOTO is currently developing a program entitled ‘Russian Museum of Photography’ and an online resource ‘Russia’s Photographic Heritage’. Both these great endeavors require research work in the sphere of preservation and processing of digital electronic images, cataloging, conservation and restoration of photography. In the practical work and research on complex preservation of cultural heritage, ROSPHOTO cooperates with various institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Komarov Botanical Institute, Laboratory for Restoration and Conservation of Documents at the Russian Academy for Sciences) and such well-known foreign research centres as Chicago Albumen Works.
Centre has been developing restoration, conservation and preservation methods and technologies that would allow effective solutions in taking care of any private collection or museum archive of photographs and negatives. The laboratory of scientific restoration at ROSPHOTO conducts works on restoration and conservation of photography and provides training for young specialists.
