On July 21, 2025, the Photo Museum celebrates its 45th anniversary. The celebration takes place a day earlier, on Sunday, July 20, with a special program on the street in front of the museum housed in the historic medieval jailhouse behind Tallinn Town Hall.

Ferrotype portrait session. Image on the ground glass of a large-format camera

Photographers Käty and Jüri Tarkpea from Studio Ag47 (Tartu) will take ferrotype portraits of visitors for a fee. The ferrotypes are created using the wet collodion process, which was dominant in the second half of the 19th century. In this technique, a large-format camera is used to capture an image directly onto a metal plate that has been prepared just before the shot and is still wet during exposure. The plate is developed immediately afterward. The result is a unique positive photograph characterized by a special tonal quality due to the selective sensitivity of the collodion emulsion, which tends to darken reddish tones, among others. Additionally, the image appears in mirror view, reversing left and right. Since each photo takes considerable time to make, 30 minutes are scheduled for each session, and advance registration is required. The ferrotype is 12×17 cm in size and costs €60. 

The Photo Museum itself will offer two workshops. The first is a pinhole photography workshop, where a metal coffee can without a lens serves as a camera. Each participant can take one photo and develop it immediately in the museum’s darkroom. The second workshop introduces participants to cyanotype printing, a historic analogue photography technique that results in blue-toned images using iron salts. 

In front of the museum on the street, vintage photographic equipment will be on sale, and contemporary photographic art will be presented by Gallery 1826. 

Mini-concerts by guitarist Kalev Karlson will take place on the hour, starting at 12:00. 

Inside the museum, visitors can enjoy the exhibition “Gendered lens”, as well as the permanent collection’s Camera Room and the exhibition “Photographer”. 

⸻ 

PROGRAM

12:00–18:00 on Raekoja Street (in front of and inside the Photo Museum): 

• Photo Museum exhibitions open 11:00–18:00
• Mini-concerts by Kalev Karlson at 12:00, 13:00, and 14:00
• Ag47 ferrotype portrait sessions (by advance registration) from 12:00–18:00
• Pinhole photography workshop at 13:00
• Cyanotype workshop at 16:00

Pictures by Meeli Küttim

• Ferrotype portrait session on Photo Street at the Photo Museum, 2020
• Wet collodion photography equipment