Century Old Russian Color Photos

Would you believe that these color photos from Russia are over 100 years old? The top photo shows the Emir of Bukhara, Alim Khan (1880-1944), in 1911 shortly after his accession.This bottom photo of an Armenian woman in national costume was captured on a hillside near Artvin (in present day Turkey), in 1910. The photographer, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944), used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters. The exposed negatives were later recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images.

Boston.com, the website of The Boston Globe, displays 34 of these amazing images from the hundreds of color images made available by the Library of Congress, which purchased the original glass plates back in 1948. The technical quality of these photos is astounding, and provides a compelling 100 year journey back into time. Follow this link to view Russia In Color, A Century Ago. The entire Produkin-Groskii collection of images can be seen here, at the “Empire That Was Russia” exhibit, Library of Congress website.

These images are humbling in a way. With all the technical advances made in photography, the end result, a moving and beautiful photographic impression, was just as beautiful 100 years ago as it is today!