Alexander Drankov

Alexander Osipovich Drankov (Russian: Алекса́ндр О́сипович Дранко́в; 18 January 1886 – 3 January 1949) was a Russian photographer, cameraman, film producer, and one of the pioneers of the Russian pre-revolutionary cinematography.

The exact date of birth and birthplace of Alexander Drankov are unknown. According to some accounts, he was born in southern parts of Russia (possibly in Odessa) in 1886. In the early 20th century, Drankov owned a dancing school in Sevastopol, which fed all of his family. Later on, he took interest in photography and soon became a professional in this craft. Drankov moved to Saint Petersburg, where he would earn fame for his photographic talent and be awarded the title of the Purveyor of the Royal Court of His Imperial Highness for his quality photographs of Nicholas II. Also, Drankov managed to make photographic work much cheaper and open a chain of no less than 50 studios, where they took photos under amplified electric lighting, thus reducing the cost of the whole photographing process. Subsequently, Drankov became a press photographer for The Times and Parisian L'Illustration and obtained a journalist accreditation at the State Duma.

In 1907, Alexander Drankov decided to start his own film-making business and opened "A. Drankov's Atelier" (Russian: Ателье А. Дранкова), which would soon transform into a "A. Drankov & Co". Drankov and his team began to shoot newsreels, him and his cameramen being habitual frequenters of every major event in both Saint Petersburg and Moscow until the October Revolution of 1917. Also, he started shooting feature shorts, such as Boris Godunov. This motion picture was never finished, though some of the materials shot for this movie were shown at cinemas in that same 1907 under the title Scenes from a Boyar Life. Drankov’s first ever filming of Leo Tolstoy (1908) was a sensational success. After having failed to obtain the writer’s permission to film him, Drankov hid himself with a camera in a wooden outhouse in the garden of Tolstoy’s estate and shot the promenading writer through a small ornamental window.

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