Tuvan Family Photo Album: Social Practices of Creation and Storage

Abstract

The authors analyze the social practices of creating and storing a Tuvan family photo album throughout the XX - early XXI century. The sources of the study are the materials of narrative biographical interviews with ten respondents - indigenous residents of Tuva of different ages which were recorded by the authors in April - May 2023. The appearance of photo albums, the features of their creation and storage reflect the general history of photo albums in the Soviet state, and now in Russia. The authors point out that in the history of photo albums there appear the Tuvan traditions, for example, in photo frames inside the yurt there are photographs of relatives, domestic animals (horses), and elements of national cuisine. But due to the events of the XX century, the issue of loss and theft of photographs and photo albums became relevant for Tuvans. In the XXI century, Tuvans have a wide variety of photo albums on different media, and today family photo albums also represent the ethnicity of people.