Self-portrait 1910

Between 1905 and 1915, photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii carried out a remarkable photographic survey of the Russian Empire. He used a custom camera that captured three black and white images in rapid succession and utilizing blue, green and red filters he created amazingly natural color images. Here are some of the 2600 images of people, historic sites, villages, cities and landscapes that the Library of Congress has preserved since acquiring the plates and negatives from the Prokudin-Gorskii family in 1948.

84 y.o. Pinkus Karlinsky 1909

Emir of Bukhara

Photographer Petrozavdsk 1910

Jewish Students Samarkand 1910

Kyn 1912

Dagestan 1910

Abhazia 1910

Armenia 1910

Tiblisi 1910