Sunday, September 12, 2010

RUSSIA IN COLOUR, A CENTURY AGO (PART 1)

Extraordinary collection of color photographs taken between 1909 and 1912. In those years, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images. The high quality of the images, combined with the bright colors, make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time - when these photographs were taken, neither the Russian Revolution nor World War I had yet begun.

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

Self-portrait on the Karolitskhali River, 1910. Prokudin-Gorskii in suit and hat, seated on rock beside the Karolitskhali River, in the Caucasus Mountains near the seaport of Batumi on the eastern coast of the Black Sea.


Molding of an artistic casting (Kasli Iron Works), 1910.


A woman is seated in a calm spot on the Sim River, part of the Volga watershed in 1910.


A chapel sits on the site where the city of Belozersk was founded in ancient times, photographed in 1909.


Tiflis (Tblisi), Georgia from the grounds of Saint David Church, 1910.


Isfandiyar Jurji Bahadur, Khan of the Russian protectorate of Khorezm (Khiva, now a part of modern Uzbekistan), full-length portrait, seated outdoors, ca. 1910.

A closer detail view of Isfandiyar, Khan of the Russian protectorate of Khorezm. This photo would have been taken near the start of his reign in 1910, when he was 39 years old. He ruled Khorezm until his death in 1918.

On the Sim River, a shepherd boy.


Alternators made in Budapest, Hungary, in the power generating hall of a hydroelectric station in Iolotan (Eloten), Turkmenistan, on the Murghab River, 1910.

A Georgian woman poses for a photograph.

A group of women in Dagestan.

General view of Artvin (now in Turkey) from the small town of Svet, 1910.


Pinkhus Karlinskii, eighty-four years old with sixty-six years of service. Supervisor of Chernigov floodgate, part of the Mariinskii Canal system. Photo taken in 1909.

General view of the Nikolaevskii Cathedral from southwest in Mozhaisk in 1911.

Jewish children with a teacher in Samarkand, (in modern Uzbekistan), 1910.

A switch operator poses on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, near the town of Ust Katav on the Yuryuzan River in 1910.

25 comments:

Ankita said...

hii
very nice
Dear Babli I would love to thank you from my heart for letting us know of such unique and interesting things :)

keep posting!

RiĆ  said...

really extra ordinary!!

Valerie said...

Beautiful and really interesting pictures. Thank you for sending the link to this blog, Babli. I had no idea you had this going on.

Gouri Guha said...

Babli, such nice pictures and thanks for sharing.

budh.aaah said...

History coming alive!

Destiny's child... said...

wow..what makes it amazing, as you rightly pointed out, is the fact that they were taken years ago! :)

R. Ramesh said...

yr posts r brilliant babli..happy i came across yr blog..best wishes always buddy:) n hi to fmly...

Rajesh said...

Interesting and beautiful images. The costumes are very nice.

BK Chowla, said...

Superb, it would have been impossible to know so much on such subjects, had I not been following your blog.

Vetirmagal said...

Such places and people!

Thanks .

Sanghamitra Bhattacherjee(Mukherjee) said...

Hi Babli,
Thanks for your wish and same to you too :)...Loved your post..great indeed !!

SG said...

Excellent pictures. Love that cathedral especially.

RAJ SINH said...

Simply amazing !

Renu said...

Babli..through your blog I saw some history and lovely pictures as always:)

Bikram said...

beautiful pictures and very interesting toooo :)

P.N. Subramanian said...

Amazing. It is unbelievable that a century ago the Russians could do this feat. Incidentally the films produced in Russia some 50/60 years ago were used to be in "Sovo colour". which was some thing unique. A joint Indo Russian film Paradesi too had a different tone.

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Jeevan said...

Unbelievable babli! The pictures are extraordinarily clear and expose the photographic skill! Thanks for bring into worth noticing.

Tomz said...

they are very interesting and wonderful pictures

Callie Brady said...

I just found your blog and you have truly found very beautiful photographs to share. Thank you! I'm so glad I was able to see these pictures.

dr.antony said...

It is unbelievable. I would not have believed they are pictures taken so long back.Colors look so natural. I had read somewhere how this technique of mixing RGB was used to produce color images,way back in 1855 by Maxell.But never thought the images could be so vivid.
keep on writing.

Margaret Cloud said...

You are right, these are extraordinary photos, thanks. Looks like Gorskii was way ahead of his time with the way he was able to achieve the colors so good. It is men like him that we have to thank for photos that the world is ale to see. Also it is bloggers like your self that take the time to post them for all of us to see, thank you.

Trotter said...

Hi Babli! Great to have some time to land here...
What a fabulous post! Superb pictures...

Blogtrotter Two is showing a wonderful site for your holidays: Costa Smeralda!! Enjoy, leave your comment and have a great Sunday!

Sudhir R said...

Hi! Babli, Fantastic, As always truly amazing, How do you source ?

Manoj K said...

the red green and blue filters have done the job, colours so true ..

in India the CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Black) technique is used in offset printing, almost all machines are imported and are used ones. the RGB printing is less costlier and better option.