Jul 21, 2011

Amazing color photos from Russian Empire taken 100 years ago

Amazing color photographs taken between 1909 and 1912 by the photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) which undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II.

This great photographer used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using blue, green and red filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images.

The high quality of these photos, 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.

The Library of Congress purchased the original glass plates back in 1948 and here on Photogic.com you will see only 34 of these.