23 Color Photos of Imperial Russia 100 Years Ago
Despite increased industrialization and a 1905 revolution, early 1900s Russia remained an absolute monarchy under Tsar Nicholas II. But while Russia lagged behind the West in many industries, a few pioneering photographers created the most advanced color photography technology in the world.
Developing a technique called digichromatography, Russian chemist and photographer Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky traveled around the country photographing landscapes, people, and more. The photos provide a truly unique perspective into a mostly pre-industrial world.
Digichromatography involved taking three photos in quick succession, each through a red, green, and blue filter respectively. Then, the images could be combined into a final product. The vast majority of the photos in this collection come from Prokudin-Gorsky.
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1.
Three generations of a Russian family. From a color photo collection of Prokhudin-Gorsky, pioneer of color photography, Russia around 1910. -
2.
The Monastery of St. Nilus on Stolbny Island, Russia, 1910. -
3.
Prisoners in a zindan, probably in the Emirate of Bukhara under Imperial Russia. 1910. -
4.
Factory in Kyn, Russia, belonging to Count S.A. Stroganov, 1912. -
5.
Jewish Children with their Teacher in Samarkand. Early color photograph from Russia. -
6.
Molding of an artistic casting, Kasli Iron Works, 1910. -
7.
A fabric merchant in the Samarkand Market, Russian Empire. 1911. -
8.
A switch operator poses on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, near the town of Ust Katav on the Yuryuzan River in 1910. -
9.
Original color photo of a man from Dagestan. 1905-1915. -
10.
The last Emir of Bukhara, an autonomous city-state in the Russian Empire, 1911. -
11.
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. -
12.
View of Tiflis, (Tblisi), Georgia from the grounds of Saint David Church, 1910. -
13.
A chapel sits on the site where the city of Belozersk was founded in ancient times, photographed in 1909. -
14.
Alternators made in Budapest, Hungary, in the power generating hall of a hydroelectric station in Iolotan (Eloten), Turkmenistan, on the Murghab River, 1910. -
15.
Avar women of Dagestan, 1911. -
16.
Prokudin-Gorskii rides along on a handcar outside Petrozavodsk on the Murmansk railway along Lake Onega near Petrozavodsk in 1910. -
17.
General view of the Nikolaevskii Cathedral from southwest in Mozhaisk in 1911. -
18.
General view of Artvin, now in Turkey, from the small town of Svet, 1910. -
19.
A metal truss bridge on stone piers, part of the Trans-Siberian Railway, crossing the Kama River near Perm, Ural Mountains Region, 1910. -
20.
A water-carrier in Samarkand, present-day Uzbekistan, 1910. -
21.
A general view of Sukhumi, Abkhazia and its bay, seen sometime around 1910 from Cherniavskii Mountain. -
22.
A dog rests on the shore of Lake Lindozero in 1910. -
23.
Self Portrait of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky. Near Batumi, Georgia, 1912.
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- 23 Color Photos of Imperial Russia 100 Years Ago
Three generations of a Russian family. From a color photo collection of Prokhudin-Gorsky, pioneer of color photography, Russia around 1910.
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