Color Photography from Russia in the Early 1900’s

Russian chemist and photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii is known to me only because my father, a professional photographer, mentioned on more than one occasion how Sergei’s work with color photography really changed not only photography, but also motion pictures. While not exactly “color photography” as we know it today (a single emulsion of film to display color in one single exposure), or in pre-digital days, I should say his work, technique, and results are still valid.

His process used a camera that took a series of three monochrome pictures in sequence, each through a different-colored filter. By projecting all three monochrome pictures using correctly colored light, it was possible to reconstruct the original color scene. Any stray movement within the camera's field of view showed up in the prints as multiple "ghosted" images, since the red, green, and blue images were taken of the subject at slightly different times. 

Because there were very few of his prints still surviving back when my father would mention him, or any I could see myself in person, I never gave Mr. Prokudin-Gorskii much thought.

But then I saw them. These beautiful, gorgeous and stunning photographs. In 2004, the Library of Congress contracted with computer scientist Blaise Agüera y Arcas to produce an automated color composite of each of the 1902 negatives from the high-resolution digital images of the glass-plate negatives. He applied algorithms to compensate for the differences between the exposures and prepared color composites of all the negatives in the collection.

The Denver Post has a beautiful collection online. Not only are these stunning photographs, but they're an impressive technical marvel as well.

More images can also be seen here.

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