Friday 6 February 2009

Visions of the Empire


These photos are from the Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection, taken between 1905 and 1915. Prokudin-Gorskii travelled around the Russian Empire taking thousands of snapshots of daily and often rural landscapes and people. His negatives are composed of three glass plates exposed in rapid succession through red, green and blue filters respectively (which we can see on the unedited borders of the following images.) He would then make his positive image by projecting the three slides at once via his triple-lens magic lantern to make these vibrant full-colour photographs. If it was a little less tricky I might attempt it myself... I can't get enough of the saturated colours and psychedelic borders - not unlike when you move an image on a colour photocopier when it's on its third scan...



Isn't his house AMAZING? Not to mention that dashing robe he's sporting so beautifully...

Lord knows why the sea is a determined violet in this one, but I think it's completely gorgeous and fantastical, and goes to show how important colour is in transforming the simple.


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