This Collection:
- View All
- About this Collection
- Acknowledgments
- Background and Scope
- Selected Bibliography
- Biographical Information
- Cataloging the Collection
- Digitizing the Collection
- Color Photography Method
- Rights And Restrictions
Browse By:
-
Creator/Related Names
(3) -
Subjects
(1209) -
Formats
(13)
More Resources
All images are digitized | All jpegs/tiffs display outside Library of Congress | View All
Background and Scope
Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii and others seated at a
campsite.
LC-DIG-ppmsc-04445
Using emerging technological advances in color
photography, Sergei Mikhailovich
Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) made numerous photographic
trips to systematically document the Russian Empire. He
conducted most of his visual surveys between 1909 and 1915,
although some of his work dates as early as 1905. The
Empire at this time stretched 7,000 miles from west to east
and 3,000 miles from north to south and comprised one-sixth
of the earth's land mass. It was the largest empire in
history and spanned what today are eleven different times
zones.
Tsar Nicholas II supported this ambitious project by providing passes and transportation: by rail, boat and automobile. Each journey made by Prokudin-Gorskii is represented by a photographic album and corresponding negatives. There is also an album of various studies, including views in Europe.
Prokudin-Gorskii's photographs show:
- sacred architecture and associated shrines of note (churches, cathedrals, monasteries, and mosques)
- liturgical and secular objects of historic
significance (vestments, icons, reliquaries, and other
objects relating to saints, previous Tsars, and the
Napoleonic War)
- public works (the engineering, construction, and use of railroads, bridges, dams, canals, locks, and roads)
- industry (iron, gold, and copper mining; production
of cotton and silverware; professions as varied as
shepherds and street vendors)
- agriculture (tea plantations and farming activities
such as planting and haying)
- people, often posed in traditional clothing
- views of cities, villages, waterfronts, landscapes, and flowering plants.
Image Formats
The online collection presents Prokudin-Gorskii's vision and legacy in several formats; each distinct image is represented by one or more digital reproductions. [ Retrieve examples showing both negatives and prints]
-
Glass negatives (24x9 cm.): Prokudin-Gorskii's unusual triple-frame black-and-white negatives consist of three exposures made through blue, green, and red filters to produce photographs that could be printed or projected in color, usually for magic lantern slide shows. All 1,902 triple-frame glass negatives in the collection have been digitized, including about 150 that did not appear as prints in Prokudin-Gorskii's albums. All have been reproduced to show the full three frames. Single-frame views (usually the green-filtered center section) are also provided for ready enlargement of details. [Retrieve all glass negatives]
-
Album prints (8x8 cm.) without existing glass negatives: There are 705 album prints for which no glass negatives exist. In those cases, the album print was digitized. These images can be quickly identified by their sepia tone in the online displays. The prints were made from the red-filtered (bottom frame) of each negative. [Retrieve all album prints without existing negatives]
-
Albums (27x41 cm.): The Library has twelve albums (in fourteen volumes) that Prokudin-Gorskii compiled as visual notebooks for his travels and studies. Digitized album pages allow modern armchair travelers to follow the same routes that Prokudin-Gorskii took almost one hundred years ago, enabling viewing of the materials in the sequence that he intended. The pages show all 2,433 contact prints contained in the albums, along with their Cyrillic captions and annotations. There are usually six prints on each page. Some spaces are blank where prints were removed long ago. Each distinct image can be displayed for further information about the item (the corresponding negative will display, if the Library has the negative). Conversely, special links lead from individual images to the album page on which the corresponding print appears, to provide the subject context. [Retrieve all albums]
-
Color composites: All of the negatives have been digitally produced in color using a software algorithm (see "Color Photography Method").
-
Color renderings: 1,380 negatives have been digitally rendered in color using photo editing software (see "Color Photography Method"). [Retrieve all color renderings]
Chronological Summary of the Trips and Albums
Note: Links retrieve the bibliographic record for the album, with its associated digitized album pages.
Various Views and Studies, 1905-1915 [
LOT 10333]
Prokudin-Gorskii traveled to Italy, Finland, and IAsnaia
Poliana in Russia to photograph various subjects of
interest and note, including Leo Tolstoy. This travel was
most likely completed prior to embarking on his ambitious
project to document the Russian Empire. (135 prints)
Caucasus and Black Sea, 1905-1915 [
LOT 10336]
Prokudin-Gorskii traveled to the Caucasus and completed a
survey in the region along the Black Sea and around or in
Artvin and Tiflis, which are present day Turkey, Georgia,
Russia and Azerbaijan. (256 prints)
Central Asia, 1905-1915 [
LOT 10338]
In 1911, Prokudin-Gorskii traveled to Samarkand to
photograph Turkestan and Afghanistan (present day
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan). (237 prints)
Mariinskii Canal System, 1909 [
LOT 10332-A and LOT 10332-B]
In the summer of 1909, Prokudin-Gorskii traveled west to
east along the Mariinskii canal system (later named the
Volga-Baltic Waterway). The 272 prints fill two albums.
Ural Mountains, Survey of Industrial Areas, 1910
[
LOT 10335-A and LOT 10335-B]
In 1910, Prokudin-Gorskii completed two trips through the
industrial areas of the Ural Mountains, the first one
beginning in Perm, from which he headed southeast, then
west, ending in Minyar. The second album covers Minyar and
his travels northeast to Cherdyn. (414 prints)
Volga River, Upper Region - From Its Source to
Kalyazin, 1910 [
LOT 10339]
Prokudin-Gorskii journeyed along the Upper Volga in 1910,
on a boat supplied and navigated by the Ministry of
Transportation, beginning at the source of the Volga
through Kalyazin. (139 prints)
Volga River, Upper Region - From Kashin to
Makarev, 1910 [
LOT 10340]
Prokudin-Gorskii continued his documentation of the Volga
Region when he journeyed along the Upper Volga in 1910 from
Kashin to Makarev. (237 prints)
Volga River, Upper Region between Yaroslavl,
Vladimir, and Kostroma, 1911 [
LOT 10341]
Prokudin-Gorskii documented the tributaries of the Volga
Region from Kostroma to Rostov Velikii. (227 prints)
Napoleonic campaign Areas from the 1812
Franco-Russian War, 1911-1912 [
LOT 10337]
In 1911 and 1912, Prokudin-Gorskii traveled a loop
starting at Mozhaisk, west of Moscow, and ended in
Malo-Iaroslavets. (141 prints)
Ural Mountains and Western Siberia, survey of
waterways, 1912 [
LOT 10342]
In 1912, Prokudin-Gorskii journeyed up the
Kamsko-Tobol'skii Water Route in western Siberia, beginning
just outside Perm through the environs of Ekaterinburg,
where he proceeded northeast to Tobolsk. (168 prints)
Oka River and Suzdal, 1912 [
LOT 10343]
In 1912, Prokudin-Gorskii traveled along the Oka River
south of Moscow from Dednovo to Suzdal. (64 prints)
Murmansk Railway, 1915 [
LOT 10334]
Prokudin-Gorskii documented the Murmansk Rail System in
1915, traveling north from Lodeinoe Pole to Kem. (143
prints)