Imperial Russia Russian empire in colour 1909-1912

[gerardkenny]

Here are some amazing photos of the Russian empire 1909-1912. Here is the background to the collectiom :

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html#photo14

Russia in color, a century ago

With images from southern and central Russia in the news lately due to extensive wildfires, I thought it would be interesting to look back in time with this 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. Collected here are a few of the hundreds of color images made available by the Library of Congress, which purchased the original glass plates back in 1948. [Editor's Note: I will be on vacation for a bit. Next entry will be published on 8/27] (34 photos total)

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

Emir Seyyid Mir Mohammed Alim Khan, the Emir of Bukhara

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

[Paul R]

WOW!! Do you have any more of these! The recoloring on these photos is spectacular!

[TacHel]

I checked all 34, they're great!!! Thanks so much for sharing these treasures.

[paul wood]

Marvellous. The Emir of Bukhara has been a long time favourite, he certainly looks the epitome of decadence. I had not realised the technique employed.

Thanks for sharing.

Paul

[drclaw]

The vibrancy and richness of the Emir's robes are simply stunning.

Robert Werlich's book has a funny story that the Emir used to distribute Bukhara orders freely to all and sundry to save on tipping! He did not survive the Revolution I believe.

[Noor]

Just amazing!!! Thank you Gerard!

[paul wood]

The vibrancy and richness of the Emir's robes are simply stunning.

Robert Werlich's book has a funny story that the Emir used to distribute Bukhara orders freely to all and sundry to save on tipping! He did not survive the Revolution I believe.

He survived as Emir unti 1920 when the Red Army captured Bukhara. He fled to Afghanistan where he remained in exile until his death in 1944

Paul

[SovietRussiaSam]

Absolutely stunning photographs. The recoloring is beautiful. Thanks for the amazing share!

[Elvis]

Thanks for sharing these wonderful pictures.

I checked your link. Beautiful images.

[Ulsterman]

Fantastic! Have you ever seen the US National Geographic photos of Russia. Per war?

[azyeoman]

Every time I see these, I'm struck by the colors and the fantastic workmanship that went into making things back then.

[Alex K]

I found these several years ago, i think a different site, there were hundreds. They are not actually re-colourisations but original colour photos using a set of three different colour plates when overlaid gave real colour, they are however trule amazing. They were available as a tiff file also, takes up great lot of memory but the close up quality is amazing

two more

Is that Basil Fawlty aka John Cleese!?

[Alex K]

!

This is on the website mentioned but there are two versions, this one is either another or a crop of the original

Edited February 5, 2013 by Alex K

[Alex K]

Here's an uncleaned up version which may show the process, These are prisoners

[Alex K]

more prisoners

[Alex K]

What's that man in the background doing ? maybe he's an early tree hugger or watering the vegitation!