Tsarist Russia in color

They could be holliday pictures from a backpacker. The images are clear, full of color and sharp! As if only a week ago they were shot with a digital camera. Still, the photos I’m talking about date back from 1904 and 1915, way before the time of Lumicolor and Kodachrome films. from the ’30’s

Sergej Prokudin-Gorsky was born in 1863 in Murdom, a little town 300 km east from Moscow. After his parents moved to St Petersburg, Sergej started working on chemical science. He studied under Dimitri Mendelejev. Sergej continued his research at the University in Berlin en Paris and he was able to put several patents on the color photography and the projection of colorfilm.

In 1907 Prokudin-Gorsky worked on a plan where he wanted to document the Industrial times of  the Russian Empire. With his optimal color projections he wanted to learn Russian scholars about the diversity and size of Russia. He got support from Tsar Nicolas the II. Between 1909 and 1912 and in 1915 he travelled throughout the Russian Empire. The ministery arranged transport for him and a train wagon which included a ‘dark room’ for his photography.

The pictures were an impressive image of Russia from before the soviet union. Produkin-Gorsky photographed medievil churches and monastries, bridges, canals and steamboats. At the beginning of the 20th century the Russia gained a fast economical development. De trade went up, cultural life did too. And everywhere in the Russian empire train tracks were built. In the Caucasus and Central-Asia Prokudin-Gorsky took pictures of Mosques, Islamic schools and religious leaders. He travelled to Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan. Apart from landscapes, he also took pictures of ‘normal’ people (this is what interest me personally the most) such as Austria-Hungarian POW prisoners in Karelia.

The collection of 2434 pictures in 14 albums gives a huge impressio of the industrial revolution in Tsarist Russia and especially on the etnic en religious diversity of the Russian empire.

After the revolution in 1917 and the murder on the Tsar family in 1918, he escaped with his complete collection to Norway and was able to settle in France later. In france he gave several speeches and lessons for a short while on invitation by the Russian community that settled here after the war.

Produkin-Gorksy died in 1944 and only 4 years after his death his children sold his entire collection for about 5000 dollars to the American Library of Congress. In 2003 they were able to convert the color layers digitally and today they are avaiable for free on the internet. Ever since the pictures are born again. Every now and then they pop up in the Russian press and especially on Russian websites and blogs.

Find out more about Produkin-Gorsky and watch his photos at www.produkin-gorsky.ru and www.loc.gov.exhibits/empire

Source:

Sneon & Snein, Holland

Saterday 11th of july, 2009 edition

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