Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944)

Go to text

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944)

Photography

 

Rarely has a dying regime seemed quite so alive. In early-20th-century Russia, in what were to be the last years of Tsarist rule, Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii was commissioned by Nicolas II to journey throughout the empire and document the daily life and environs of its diverse population (Hugh Montgomery, 2013)

 

Chemist-turned-photographer Prokudin-Gorskii is a pioneer of full-colour photography. He developed a technique which utilized a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters; the images would then be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images. 

 

The results of his visual survey of Russia which Prokudin-Gorskii carried out with the support of Tsar Nicholas II spanned 11 regions, between the years 1909-1915. The images were intended to be mass-reproduced slides to help educated children about their country.

As can be seen from the photographs below the results ‘proffer the shock of the old, their vivid palettes making an era of over a century ago, typically known to us in black and white, feel thrillingly, momentarily contemporary’.

 

The Library of Congress purchased hundreds of the original glass plates back in 1948.

 

Further reading: 'Nostalgia: The Russian Empire of Czar Nicolas II' (£55, Gestalten)

 

Photo captions:

 

• An Armenian woman in national costume poses for Prokudin-Gorskii on a hillside near Artvin (present day Turkey), circa 1910 (Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/LOC)

• Self-Portrait on the Karolitskhali River, in the Caucasus Mountains near the seaport of Batumi on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. Circa 1910.(Prokudin-Gorskii Collection/LOC)

• Monastery of St. Nilus on Stolbny Island in Lake Seliger near Ostashkov, 1910

• Russian settlers, possibly Molokans, in the Mulgan steppe of Azerbaijan, Serbia (1905-1915)

• Russian Industry (1905-1915)

• Tillia-Kari from Registan Square, 1906-1911

• Carpet seller

• Melon Vendor