From the Early 1900’s

Color Photography from the Early 1900’s

 The photographs of Russian photographer and chemist, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, show Russia just before World War I and the arrival of the revolution. From 1909-1912 and in 1915, Prokudin-Gorskii traveled across the Russian Empire, documenting the life of citizens, landscapes and the work of Russain people. His images were to be a photographic survey at that time. He traveled in a special train-car transformed into a dark room to process his color images, a technology that was just discovered in the early 1900’s. Prokudin-Gorskii left Russia in 1918, after the Russian Revolution had destroyed the Russian Empire he spent years documenting.

  Church in the village of Shaidoma.

Peasant children, Russia. The young women offer berries to visitors.

  Trans-Siberian Railway metal truss bridge on stone piers, over the Kama River near Perm, Ural Mountains Region.

Cotton textile mill interior with machines producing cotton thread, probably in Tashkent.

 Man and camel loaded with packs.

 Three yurts, man seated in doorway of yurt in foreground.

 Altar side of the Dmitrievskii Cathedral, Vladimir.

 Bashkir switchman.

 Isfandiyar, Khan of the Russian protectorate of Khorezm (Khiva), full-length portrait, in uniform, seated on chair, outdoors.

 Austrian prisoners of war near a barrack, near Kiappeselga.

 Photographer posing with two others

 Shuia River

 In Little Russia (Ukraine)

 Alim Khan, Emir of Bukhara, seated holding sword

 Log buildings in the Ural Mountain Region

 Corner tower of the Trinity Cathedral in the Solovetskii Monastery, Solovetski Islands

 Boy standing by wooden gatepost

 Work at the Bakalskii mine

 Bashkir’s yard, Ekhia

 Rafts on the Peter the Great Canal. City of Shlisselburg, Russia.

 City of Cherdyn

 Old church of Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker, Nyrob

 Church in Vetluga settlement

 Andrei Petrov Kalganov. Former master in the plant. Seventy-two years old, has worked at the plant for fifty-five years. He was fortunate to present bread and salt to His Imperial Majesty, the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II, Zlatoust

 Dvinsk, Roman Catholic church

 Mills in Ialutorovsk district of Tobolsk Province

 Molding shop at the Kasli plant

 On the Karolitskhali River, self portrait of photographer Prokudin-Gorskii in suit and hat, seated on rock beside the Karolitskhali River, with mountains in background

 Assumption Cathedral in the Goritskii Monastery, near Pereiaslavl-Zalesskii

 Chapel on Olga hill, Russia

 Garden of the M.P.S. (Ministry of Communication and Transportation) and Saint Paul sluice, Deviatiny, Russia.

 Pinkhus Karlinskii, eighty-four years. Sixty-six years of service. Supervisor of Chernigov floodgate, Russia.

 Crew of the steamship “Sheksna” of the M.P.S. (Ministry of Communication and Transportation), Russia.

Sawmill, Oka River, Several men standing near a sawmill.

Church of the Resurrection in the Grove (from the other side), Kostroma.

Dagestani types, Group of women posed outdoors.

 Gallery in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, Rostov Velikii.

 Construction of iron-concrete frames for the lock’s walls, Beloomut, Uniformed man posed in framework of lock

 Construction of iron-concrete frames for the lock’s walls, Beloomut, Uniformed man posed in framework of lock

 General view of the Shakh-i Zindeh mosque (evening photo), Samarkand.

 Shepherd posed near a hillside, Samarkand.

 Georgian woman standing on a carpet, outside, near a tree.

 Mugan, Settler’s family, Settlement of Grafovka.

 Group of workers harvesting tea. Greek women, Chakva.

 Dagestani types, Man and woman posed outdoors.

 General view of the Likanskii palace from the Kura River.

 Portion of entrance door on right side of Tillia-Kari, Samarkand.

 On the Saimaa Lake.

 Camel caravan carrying thorns for fodder, Golodnaia Steppe.

 Melon vendor, Samarkand.

 At work on the upper reaches of the Syr-Darya, Golodnaia Steppe, Four men on a horse-drawn cart, next to a cliff. 

Migrant farmstead in the settlement of Nadezhdinsk with a group of peasants, Golodnaia Steppe.