Russia in color, a century ago

[skeletor]

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.

Click here to see the pics --> Russia in color, a century ago - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Simply incredible. Can't believe my eyes.

 

[thetechfreak]

This is simply awesome. Thanks for posting ico

 

[ajaybc]

Awesome. Thanks

 

[Neuron]

Wow,didn't know we had color photography back then.

 

[Desmond]

Nice...

 

[Piyush]

impressive

 

[Zangetsu]

Briiliant photos

 

[quan chi]

Nice post there ICO.

 

[Deleted member 26636]

Really cool...thanx for sharing

 

[buddyram]

How did ones creativity was unnoticed for so long...!

those are amazing pics! TFS ico

 

[dashing.sujay]

Are those photos of 1910 ? Simply outstanding

 

[sujoyp]

very beautiful pics from the past ...still cant believe that those were taken in 1909-10

 

[Skud]

Interesting, thanks ico.

 

[Liverpool_fan]

In Soviet Russia....oh wait...

 

[thatsashok]

Good find ico.

Man they had such huge alternators back then :O

 

[dissel]

Amazing.....Thanks a lot for posting here. Really Unbelievable.

 

[asingh]

Yea, I had seen this before. Amazing.

 

[Alok]

so beautiful.....

Some looks oil paintings

i'll make my wallpapers, magnificent and absolutely fascinating.

 

[Vyom]

Photos are too awesome to thing these are 100 years old!

But, pics like that no#11, 14 and 29.. makes me sad. Seems like somebody have beaten the hell out of them!

 

[Faun]

Wow,didn't know we had color photography back then.

It's some red, blue, green filter and then magic to get color.