A LISI (now SPbGASU) graduate 1976, Sergey Kompaniychenko presented his photo album “St Petersburg in the Necklace of Bridges” to a wide audience of his native university. The publication can be called an encyclopedia of bridges in the Northern capital, since each photograph of 265 bridge structures is accompanied by background information with interesting facts. According to the author, the book will be of interest to everyone who loves St Petersburg. From a professional point of view, it is significant for photographers, specialists in the field of bridge and tunnel construction, and students studying bridge engineering.

In the lens of Sergei Kompaniychenko – both iconic and little-known and even unaccounted bridges of the city. The photographer took the first photo included in the album in 1987, the last one in 2022. When he became interested in photographing bridges, he did not imagine that over time he would collect all these works in one publication. This idea came to him in the early nineties of the last century. Since then, the author purposefully began photographing bridges for his future book.

• The uniqueness of the photographs lies in the fact that, on the one hand, they clearly show the competence of an engineer – a rare photographer without a technical education will be able to see and capture the unique beauty of bridge structures from such unusual angles. On the other hand, the creative view and approach is clearly visible: for example, the author photographed the English Bridge in the English style – in the fog.

“It has been noted in professional circles that only a bad photographer takes pictures in sunny weather. I worked in those weather conditions in which this object looked most advantageous. To do this, I often had to return to the bridge several times. It’s difficult to “catch” fog: it happens early in the morning, and it’s impossible to guess when it will happen, so I didn’t always have a camera at hand. In order to catch the English Bridge in the fog, I postponed everything and shot also the Staro-Kalinkin Bridge that day,” said Sergey Kompaniychenko.

The photographer admits that he especially remembers photographing the Bolshoi Obukhovsky Bridge. At first he shot it from a helicopter, but he also wanted to photograph the bridge parts, and for this he needed to climb onto the pylon. The bridge structure has four pylons. To ensure that his creative vision was realized, he took successful shots from three. By the time it was the turn of the fourth, the permit to visit the site had expired, and he had to go through all the authorities again, which took a lot of time. Climbing the pylon also required considerable physical effort. And when the height was finally taken, the photographer realized: the place was not suitable for the desired shot and pictures from other pylons should be included in the photo album. But, as Sergey Alekseevich says, he eliminated all doubts about choosing the best.

Representatives of the SPbGASU Department of Roads, Bridges and Tunnels: Senior Lecturer Nikolay Kozak, Consulting Professor Vladimir Bystrov, Head Maria Klekovkina, Associate Professor Evgeny Kornylyev

The presentation was attended by representatives of the SPbGASU Department of Roads, Bridges and Tunnels: head Maria Klekovkina, associate professor Evgeny Kornylyev, visiting professor Vladimir Bystrov and senior lecturer Nikolay Kozak.

Vladimir Bystrov noted the relevance of this book and appreciated the fundamental work by its author. “I often hear people who come from different parts of the world admire our city, and first of all they talk about bridges. Students from the German city of Oldenburg, when we visited the Palace Bridge with them in the dark evening, even promised to have a wedding in our city and would certainly return to this bridge. You professionally emphasized the beauty of bridges both as an engineer and as a photographer. The book will be very useful for our students,” believes Vladimir Apolinarievich.

Sergey Kompaniychenko hands over the book to the head of the SPbGASU scientific and technical library Elena Romanova

Sergey Kompaniychenko donated the book to the SPbGASU scientific and technical library. The head of the library, Elena Romanova, noted that the photo album will take its rightful place in the library collection, and the author’s photographs will be published in the official VKontakte library community in the Saturday section dedicated to graduates of SPbGASU.

The high quality of the book is evidenced by its demand, including in a professional environment. Two thousand copies were produced, of which several hundred were purchased by the St Petersburg State Budgetary Institution Mostotrest. It is noteworthy that in the photo album the author included photographs of the Kolomensky Bridge, which was designed at LISI.