I recently wrote an introduction to this fascinating collection of century old color photography.  It may be an idea to read that first – here – and then come back to this second part, although it may be read as a standalone article in its own right.  This second article looks at some more of the photographs from this amazing collection.  To think that these were taken a century ago is still something that consistently takes me aback, even though I have become very familiar with them since I first made my ‘discovery’ of this little known genius.

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Let us start with a picture of the man himself, taken around 1915.  Prokudin-Gorsky managed to, as we shall see, interpolate himself in to many of his pictures, pre-dating in this habit, the likes of Alfred Hitchcock by several decades.  The Tsar of Russia, impressed by a color picture of Leo Tolstoy taken by Prokudin-Gorsky, allowed the photographer access to parts of the Empire that were restricted to most people at the time.  With this permission – and funds from the Tsar (which included a railway carriage especially fitted out for his equipment), Prokudin-Gorsky set about his remarkable mission with gusto.  This images are so clear that it could easily be imagined that they are fake – posed just a few days ago by fans of historical recreations – but you can be assured that  they are real.

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During the project, the Great War – what we now know as the First World War – broke out, throwing Europe and eventually the rest of the world in to bloody turmoil.  Although his project did not lead him to the front lines, Prokudin-Gorsky did get to visit a Prisoner of War camp and here you can see Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war in an astonishingly clear picture.  In order to capture the image, the technique used meant that the people in the shot had to remain still for over a minute and you can still see this necessity in some of the pictures included in this collection.  When Prokudin-Gorksy finally left Russia for good in 1918 this was one of the pictures he managed to take with him to Paris.  Perhaps because it was difficult to check each one, this picture (which the Russian authorities would have deemed to be of a sensitive nature and would have confiscated it) managed to get through with the others.

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As well as capturing the essence of the many peoples of Russia, Prokudin-Gorsky took many photographs of the country’s landmarks.  This image illustrates the modern history of Russia in a particularly chilling way.  Northwest of Moscow, the Nilova Monastery stands, in 1915 as a functioning institution of the Russian Orthodox Church.  The sheer blueness of this picture is stunning and it captures the contemplative nature of the way of life within its walls perfectly.  It was confiscated by the communist regime in 1927 and was used for a number of purposes, including an orphanage and, rather more insidiously, a concentration camp.  It was restored to the church in 1990 after the fall of communism and has now reverted to its original purpose.

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Prison is not a pleasant experience now, so take a moment to ponder the fate of these men, captive and captured in an Uzbekistan prison in around 1909.  The province of Uzbekistan was, if you like, almost the equivalent of the Wild West in the US in the decade or so before this picture was taken.  Such is the vivid nature of the photograph one is left to ponder what the fate was of these prisoners.  How much longer were they to remain alive after this picture was taken?

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Although the railway carriage in which the equipment traveled was probably considered high tech at the time, the journey that Prokudin-Gorsky and his team took would often mean camping out and roughing it far from civilization.  Again, the photographer manages to get himself in to the shot here, but one cannot help but wonder who the almost out of shot and somewhat grumpy looking man at the right edge of the picture was.  Even though it was unlikely he would ever see the finished photograph, some people even managed to be camera shy a century ago.

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Photography as we know it was in its infancy in the early part of the twentieth century and it is difficult enough now to get that perfect shot even today.  Imagine when you had to demand that your subjects hold still for over a minute while the processed involved took place (for a more detailed description, please read the previous article).  However, the historical value of many of Prokudin-Gorsky’s pictures is huge, despite the fact that one hundred years ago some of the people featured in his pictures were unable to resist a slight fidget.  These men are working on the concreting of a dam outside Moscow and the pictures tells us as much about the engineering of the time as the outfits worn by the workers involved in the project.

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In the pictures where he appears himself, Prokudin-Gorsky sometimes seemed to be disobeying his own instructions.  Perhaps, during the three shot process he had to give some instructions to his assistant, this time in charge of taking the photograph.  The blurring around his hands and the ever so slightly cross expression on his face would seem to indicate that instruction, if not remonstration, took place during the process here.

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Most of Prokudin-Gorsky’s pictures record only the ethnicity and location of the subjects but occasionally we have been left some further details of their subjects.  This old gentleman was named Pinkhus Karlinsky and when the picture was taken in 1909 he was eighty four years old.  A little math and we can work out that he was born in 1825.  The fact that the image (and so perhaps some of the personal history) of someone born then was ultimately captured in color is, quite simply amazing.  The picture shows the grand old man, the Supervisor of the Chernigov flood gates, still active and on duty after close to seventy years in the service.  The canal system upon which he worked is now known as the Volga-Baltic Waterway and was built to link the Volga and associated tributaries.  It gave the land-locked interior of Russia access to the Baltic Sea.

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Looking as if it was shot yesterday, this picture is one hundred years old.  It shows a country house on a lake in Materiki.  Compare the reflection of the still water here with that of the flowing canal in the previous image.  Although the photographer could tell his human subjects (often in vain) to remain completely still, he was no King Canute and could not command the waters to freeze for posterity.  The flowing waters of the canal, however, have an almost modern, HDR look to them. 

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The Russian empire was vast – and so were its crops both in size and diversity.  Here, these women and children take a short break from collecting tea to pose uncomfortably for the itinerant photographer.  The expression of the woman, somewhat taller than the others at the front of the picture, with her hands upon her hips, is something to behold.  Perhaps wary of the technology, perhaps cross that the working day had been interrupted, one hundred year old sour grapes are not too difficult to spot.  She is quite likely only in her thirties and her old before their time features are, however, testament to the hard lives that the Russian peasant class endured before the revolution.

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The flowers of their village, in all their finery, offer the stranger hospitality – in this case a man from the city called Prokudin-Gorsky.  To be frank, these girls look terrified, but although taken one hundred years ago, with color their features look incredibly modern.  The face of the girl in the center of the picture, in particular and probably because she does not wear a head scarf, could be cropped and inserted in to any year book for the year 2009 and it would be overlooked as not out of place.  The fact that if this girl lived to be eighty that she probably died before 1970 makes it all the more remarkable.

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A workshop of men forming art castings.  Notice the curtain over the window – quite possibly the work of the photographer in attempt to get the composition right in terms of the shadow.  It is quite likely that these men would ordinarily have needed as much light as possible in order to conduct their work.  I particularly like the composition of this shot and the contrast between light and dark.  It is little to surprise to learn that Prokudin-Gorsky was, as well as a student of photochemistry, one of fine art in addition.

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Although he captured the simplicity (and harshness) of peasant life in Russia before the revolution, Prokudin-Gorsky also photographed many engineering works and marvels of technology that were happening throughout the country at the time.  Here, he has captured the preparations, in 1909, to view a solar eclipse.  Although the snow and the surrounding landscape somewhat whites out this picture, the cloth in the background shows that it is in fact still a color photograph.  The highlight of this picture for me is the very cold looking lady, sitting demurely at its center.

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The gathering of hay at the Leushinsky Monastery outside of Saint Petersburg would come to a standstill once the city was renamed Leningrad.  Until that time, however, the nuns would go about their routine, year in and year out, as they had done for centuries previously.

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And a family takes rest after on the stubble field after a hard days work.  Whether this family was made or destroyed by the coming revolution is lost to history.

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Certainly, the collectivization of the farms after the revolution would finish off the way of life of many in Russia.

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One hundred years ago, this bridge on the river Vytegra was caught – as was the group picture at the fire station of the town below.  It certainly could have been taken yesterday, the colors are so alive.  The photographs of Prokudin-Gorsky remain today a startling and vivid reminder of what it must have been like to live in the Russia of the Tsars.  The times recorded by this little known genius of photography are long gone.  However, we now have a wonderful record, a superlative and unique archive that still confounds (by its age and splendor) the viewer today.

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If you have come to this second article before reading the first, which contains more information on the life and times of Prokudin-Gorsky and his technique, then you can find it here.