prokudin-gorsky

A story of the color photography pioneer, who documented early 20th-century Russia in nearly 2000 pictures

sergey mikhaylovich

In 1890 he married Anna Lavrova, a girl from a wealthy family of Lavrov, an active member in the Imperial Russian Technical Society (IRTS). Subsequently he became the director of the executive board of Lavrov's metal works near Saint Petersburg. He also joined Russia's oldest photographic society, the photography section of the IRTS, presenting papers and lecturing on the science of photography.

Prokudin-Gorsky was born in 1863 in a noble family. Enrolled in Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology to study chemistry under Dmitri Mendeleev. He also studied music and painting at the Imperial Academy of Arts. However his true passion was photography.

In 1902  he went to Berlin and spent 6 months studying colour sensitization and three-colour photography with photochemistry professor Adolf Miethe, the most advanced practitioner in Germany at that time. After his return to Moscow, he invented his emulsion recipe, thanks to which he receives incredibly accurate color rendering, allowing to reflect the fullness of color.

On August 2  1901, Sergei Mikhailovich opens in St. Petersburg a photocinographic studio, which later housed the laboratory and  an editorial office of the Russia's main photography journal, the Fotograf-Liubitel.

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1901

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James Clerk Maxwell
Presented the first durable colour photograph in the world

Frederic Eugene Ives
First demonstrated a system of natural color photography in the USA

Adolf Miethe
Designed a camera for color photography in Germany

Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky
Improved the sensitivity of the photographic plate and camera construction, decreased the required exposure time

Since there were no color photographic materials at that time, Prokudin-Gorsky used the method of color separation. Using glass black-and-white photographic plates he made three shots of one and the same  still object through blue, green and red filters . Then he made high-quality positives.

For demonstrating color images Prokudin-Gorsky constructed a projector. In this device three rhomboidal prisms were stapled together, creating one combined prism. All three colors were focused on the screen. As a result, a color image appeared.

"Color photography can make a St. Petersburger who has never left his native city see the wondrous churches of Vladimir province, the cathedrals and monasteries of Rostov the Great, the tower of Tsarevich Demetrius in Uglich, the Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma, the precious frescoes that cover the walls of ancient churches, and many other things that he never even dreamed of"

Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky

The route of the trip was probably from Raivola through Karelian Isthmus to Vyborg, then along the Saimaa Canal to Vilmanstrand on Lake Saimaa, then by railroad or by water to Punkaharju and Neishloit (Savonlinna) resorts. The pictures were mostly sketches, capturing the bright colors of autumn.

In 1903 Prokudin-Gorsky took a camping tent for changing tapes and made his first trip to take color photographs.

Photographs were mainly distributed as postcards back then.

In 1904-1905 Prokudin-Gorsky visited Dagestan, Luga District, St. Petersburg Province, the Black Sea coast, and Ukraine, having taken more than 400 color pictures.

Dagestan

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Dagestani types 1904

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Avars Women. Dagestan 1904

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Village of Nizhny Gunib 1904

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Dagestan. Arakani village 1905

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Prokudin-Gorsky mostly tried to capture the positive moments, leaving the flaws of life, though no doubt there were also many, to other authors.

Cotton. In Sukhumi Botanical Garden

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Novyi Afon monastery

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The Swallow's Nest, Crimea

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Araucaria. In Tsar's Park, Dagomys

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In December 1906, Prokudin-Gorsky traveled to Turkestan with an expedition of the Russian Geographic Society to photograph the solar eclipse over the Sulukta mines.

Although Prokudin-Gorsky was unable to photograph the eclipse because of cloud cover, he took many color photographs of Samarqand and Bukhara, including the Bibi-Khanim Mosque, the Shirdar Madrasah, and many other buildings that were soon damaged by a major earthquake.

Now the exhibition of these photos in the Museum of Photography in Tashkent is the only permanent exhibition of Prokudin-Gorsky in the world.

Prokudin-Gorsky put control black-and-white prints into the journal of his expeditions.

Medrese of Abdullah-khan. Complex of Kush-medrese. Outer entrance. Bukhara

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On the Registan. Samarkand

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Melon vendor, Samarkand

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According to Prokudin-Gorsky, everywhere he went to take photos, people tried to dress better, put on something new and beautiful, to look as good as possible.

Peasant girls. [Nizhnyaya Topornya. Sheksna River] 1909

Two portraits of a famous Russian opera singer Fyodor Chaliapin in stage costumes taken by Prokudin-Gorsky are also known. According to some opinions, Prokudin-Gorsky photographed members of the royal family, but these photographs have not yet been found; they may have been irretrievably lost.

In May 1908, Prokudin-Gorsky traveled to Yasnaya Polyana, where he took one of his most famous photographs, a portrait of a great writer Leo Tolstoy.

Printing color photographs was very expensive. Not all of Prokudin-Gorsky's photographs were published in color during the photographer’s lifetime. Among them there are photo-portraits of Chaliapin and Leo Tolstoy, some views related to the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, illustrations for books, as well as a series of nearly one hundred postcards with  Russian beauties.

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In Yasnaya Polyana. The Big Pond and the village

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Portrait of Leo Tolstoy. May 23, 1908

Yasnaya Polyana. The main entrance to Leo Tolstoy's estate

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Chaliapin as Boris Godunov. 1915

Chaliapin as Mephistopheles. 1915

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The most ambitious project of Prokudin-Gorsky was to take photographs of many places and regions throughout the Russian Empire. It took place during his trip in 1909.

This trip was preceded by an audience with Emperor Nicholas II. At this meeting, Sergei Mikhailovich showed his color photographs to the royal family, which aroused great interest and delight.

The tsar had a favorable attitude toward the idea of a large-scale photography trip across Russia. Upon his request Prokudin-Gorsky was provided with a specially equipped railroad car for travels around the country, as well as a small steamer capable of sailing on the shallow with a full crew. A Ford car was sent to Ekaterinburg for the shooting of the Ural Mountains.

"During a break, the emperor came to me and asked what I thought was the purpose of my work. I responded to him that I thought it should be used for educational purposes. So that schoolchildren in Russia, who have no opportunity to travel not just across the border, but across Russia, could get acquainted with the sights of the country".

The documents issued by the tsar provided the master with access to all places in the Russian Empire, and the local administration was to provide him with every assistance in taking photos. All in all it was planned to make 10 thousand images during 10 years. All the work, except for transport expenses, was done at his personal expense, and the very first year showed that it would hardly be possible to realize the plan.

The outbreak of World War I forced Prokudin-Gorsky almost completely to give up shooting the collection and to work for military needs: to censor films arriving from abroad, analyze photographic materials, takу pictures from aeroplanes  etc.

Shortly after the October Revolution he was appointed a professor of the Photographic Film Institute specially created on directive of Lunacharsky. But already in August 1918 he left Russia for good at his own will, having not returned from a business trip. The news about the shooting of the royal family, with whom he was well acquainted, was the last straw.

Through Finland and Norway, Prokudin-Gorsky came to England, where he continued his experiments in the creation of color film for cinematography, and then to France.

It remains a mystery how, years after his departure, he took about a third of his archive, 20 boxes of photographic records, out of revolutionary Russia. What remained in his homeland has not been found to this day.

Prokudin-Gorsky in his laboratory, 1920s, photo from family archive

Prokudin-Gorsky worked with the Lumiere brothers and even intended to make a new series of photographs of artistic monuments in France and its colonies. This idea was partially realized by his son Mikhail Prokudin-Gorsky.

On September 27  1944 Sergei Mikhailovich died in the "Russian House", a country boarding house for old emigrants on the outskirts of Paris, shortly after the liberation of the city by the Allies. His ashes rest in the Russian cemetery in Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois.

In emigration Prokudin-Gorsky was shooting a color film, patented his camera, although his film experiments have not survived. Later he began to engage in educational activities.

Together with his children, he organized the "Yolka" photo studio, first in Nice, then in Paris. At the beginning of the 1930s, Prokudin-Gorsky retired from the laboratory. The atelier continued working under the name "The Gorsky Brothers.

Library of Congress staff member Verna Curtis demonstrates triple negative photo

The Library of Congress purchased from Prokudin-Gorsky's son a collection of 1,902 triple negatives for $3,500. For several decades it remained unclaimed in the archives.

1948

The popular magazine "Science and Life" published an article by S. Garanina, "Leo Tolstoy in a Color Photo". From then on, articles about Prokudin-Gorsky were periodically published in the USSR.

1970

One of his most famous photos, a portrait of Leo Tolstoy, was published on the cover of Ogonyok magazine with a circulation of more than 2 million copies; there was a short article about Prokudin-Gorsky himself in the same issue.

1978

As soon as it had become technically possible, the staff of the Library of Congress scanned all the pictures and posted them on the Internet with free copying rights. Prokudin-Gorsky's photographs have become a cultural treasure of humanity and a unique testimony of the era.

2001

The site is made for educational purposes and non-commercial use

This website was created by:

ANASTASIA MERKULOVA

The materials of the project "The Heritage of S. M. Prokudin-Gorsky" and other sources were used.