1905-1915: Colors of the Tsar

These photographs, twenty of which are presented restored for the first time, show the Russian Empire before the Revolution, in color.

The photographs are the work of Sergey Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944). After taking a color portrait of Tolstoy, Prokudin-Gorskii became known to the then-Tsar Nicholas II.  Commissioned and funded by the Tsar, he was to travel the span of the empire, capturing it in color. In total, Prokudin-Gorskii took more than 10,000.  He utilised a railroad car as a darkroom, remodelled to suit his requirements. 

Prokudin-Gorsky's color photographic, process, never commercialised, employed three individual black-and-white exposures, through a red, green or blue filter. Brought together, the three filtered exposures revealed the full color image.

Not all the photographs have a specific date, but all were taken in the decade between 1905 and 1915.

Prokudin-Gorsky left Russia in 1918 after the Communist Revolution and ultimately came to settle with his family in Paris. Approximately half of his own negatives were confiscated by the Russian authorities on his departure.

In 1948, the remaining images - just over 2,600 - were bought by the Library of Congress from Prokudin-Gorskii's sons. 

https://retronaut.com/content/c-1909-colors-of-the-tsar

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