Sergey Lvovich Levitsky was the photographer for several generations of the Romanov family and photographed Napoleon III. Even Gogol, who usually refused to be photographed, posed for him.

Initially, Sergey Lvovich chose a non-creative profession. In 1839, thanks to his father, he began working in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the same time, he became passionate about photography, and this hobby quickly turned into his passion. Levitsky constantly experimented and introduced new methods in photography.

In 1845, he went to Paris for practical experience. There, he was the first to apply bromination in daguerreotypy, based on the light sensitivity of silver iodide. This improved the quality of the images and sped up the printing process. He was also the first to start retouching negatives: in his photographs, people could 'communicate' with their doubles. He also suggested using electric lighting for portrait photography.

In 1851, his daguerreotype portraits won first place at the Paris exhibition, where images were created on a metal plate coated with silver.

Levitsky made the only photographic portrait of Gogol, who did not like to be photographed. In a group photo of writers and artists, Nikolai Vasilyevich was placed in the center.

Napoleon III invited Levitsky to photograph his family at the Palace of Fontainebleau. The emperor liked these photos so much that he awarded Sergey Lvovich the title of imperial photographer.

Levitsky's daguerreotype studio in St. Petersburg was extremely popular. He could take up to 1500 photos a day. Among his clients were Tolstoy, Turgenev, Goncharov, and Ostrovsky. Levitsky became the only photographer to work with four generations of the Romanovs.

In the 1890s, having stepped back from business, Levitsky began writing memoirs, and he passed his photo studio to his sons Raphael and Lev.