Authentic Color Photographs of the Russian Empire (1904-1915) | Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky

[@HoH]

Have a look for yourself at the US Library of Congress Prokudin-Gorsky collection: www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/prok/ Rectification: at 3:57 what you're seeing is the moulding of an artistic casting. Kasli Iron Works. From the album: Views in the Ural Mountains, survey of industrial area, Russian Empire, 1910. Not developing photographs. *Timecodes* 1:10 Sergey Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky 6:43 Sergey's work after the Russian Revolution 8:07 Other early colour photographers *Sources* Allshouse, R. H. (Ed.). (1980). Photographs for the Tsar: the pioneering colour photography of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II. Sidgwick & Jackson. Brumfield, W. C. (1990). The Color Photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii. Visual Resources, 6(3), 243-255. Leich, H. (2017). The Prokudin-Gorskii Collection of Early 20th Century Color Photographs of Russia at the Library of Congress: Unexpected Consequences of the Digitization of the Collection, 2000-2017. Slavic & East European Information Resources, 18(3-4), 223-230. US Library of Congress Prokudin-Gorsky collection: www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/prok/

[@TheLemonadedrinker]

These images are not 'colorised', whatever that means, as if done with a computer of some sort; they are made by a 3 layer process he developed, using starch grains from potatoes and each one required 3 exposures through different filters, so a hugely labourious procedure which wasn't always successful in terms of focus or exposure. Magnificent images.

[@Secession1900]

That is not correct. The Lumiere Autochrome plates used colored potato grains. Prokudin-Gorski used conventional black and white photo plates. A separate plate for each of the three filters (red green and blue). The three separate images were then combined in projection through colored filters. The blurring that we sometimes see in the photos is due to subject movement that could take place between the exposures. A more complete explanation is available on the Library of Congress website. www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html

[@iXNomad]

@@Secession1900 they are still not 'colorized' in a way that people take a random b&w photo and colorize them with crayons or computers. These colors are actually real colors, because the information was captured from reality, not imagined by artists.

[@tombogan03884]

You mean a Russian actually used a potato for something besides Vodka? I'm conflicted. I liked the photo's but... 😁 Interesting to know they used potato, which also seems to be considered a "superfood".

[@khizarhayatkhan2296]

If you mean by ‘colorised’, pseudocolored then agreed. He successfully captured the red blue and green channels separately and that was enough for color photography

[@JanPBtest]

@@Secession1900 What's interesting is that Prokudin-Gorski used photographic emulsion he made himself. He tried commercially available plates from Ilford and Lumiere but found them not good enough. He also needed to red-sensitise the emulsion as in those days it was orthochromatic only. For viewing the images he used a specially made projector taking three slides behind the three filters and with a prism combining the three images. This is how he showed his work to the Tsar Nicholas II. Thankfully, the Tsar's palace had been connected to the electric power some time earlier 🙂

[@JanPBtest]

This is not "colourized" photography, it's _true-colour photography from the era._ That's what so amazing about them,

[@goodman4966]

Man this is now make wish we have Photographs of the world before 1800s all that history

[@Otokichi786]

Hold on there, Burford, I take "Colorized" to mean "Monochrome photographs turned into color photos via the use of hand colored dyes/paints." This is the three-color process that is used to recreate the original scene/subject in FULL COLOR. These are COLOR photographs, and not the "Colorized" stuff put out by "color crayon brigade." The three-color process is as much a full color process as the Lumiere brothers created in time to record Mark Twain in the flesh.

[@antidoteify]

thank you ;) exactly maybe he ment just that but did't manage to put in right words. Amazing collection.

[@AnastasiaRomanov-w9x]

It still isn’t the real colors. Lol

[@ShinSheel]

Prokudin is also cool for capturing people in semi-casual way, it’s not like pompous photos people did on their own

[@kingsandthings]

Great video! I absolutely adore Prokudin's photographs. In many ways I think they are even more realistic than modern ones. There is certainly something special about the colours ...

[@Artur_M.]

A truly magnificent collection.

[@nirfz]

What a coincidence: I just finished a book that explained and featured Prokudin and some of his pictures you showed. The Book was the diaries of an Austrian POW in Russia during WW1. Dr. Richarr von Stenitzer. The one at 8:13 is from 1915 and shows a russian Officer and Austrian POWs on the Murmansk railway during WW1. In the book the author (the guy who collected the diaries and some photographs and made a book out of it) says that before digitalization the techniques to make full colored pictures out of the 3 color plates wasn't resulting in such sharp and clear pictures. And with digitalization now we can enjoy the pictures in their full potential.

[@rafiquekeshavjee8033]

I was delighted to see this video. When I was Program Officer for the Christensen Fund, a California based endowed foundation, in around 2005, the Fund gave a grant for a Central Asian display of these photographs in the settings they were originally taken. The exhibit, consisting of photographs mounted in the open, with descriptions provided by the photographer, took place in Samarkand and seems to have had a dramatic effect on the local population because they were looking at their own forbears at a time so long ago as to be unimaginable.

[@justinpachi3707]

This channel is getting better and better!

[@tombogan03884]

Incredible.

[@dragonrykr]

And whenever a UFO comes up, even today we have potato quality cameras lol

[@cgt3704]

Ufos are false and area 51 is just a farce

[@LouiesLog]

@@cgt3704 birds aren't real

[@cgt3704]

@@LouiesLog no. They work for the burgeoise. Lol

[@pdz-pk4od]

Fabulous. Thank you.

[@Alexrocks1253]

Great video on the photographer! I am surprised more people don't know about him considering his achievements in the early 20th century.

[@MSSTUDIO]

Wow that's amazing I just find out about Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky Thanks for that

[@footieballer]

The quality and subject matter is absolutely stunning. Thank you for sharing. I’m so glad I subscribed. Cheers.

[@george1la]

Fantastic pictures. They show reality then.

[@billthetraveler51]

That is amazing. Thank you

[@senator1295]

I have the book on my shelf; put it there 50 years ago

[@Scottzilla1970]

These pictures are astounding. I wonder if the 3 plate system you mentioned is similar to the Technicolor 3 film system as the color in those pictures have that lovely saturation like Technicolor does.

[@A0111.]

The method was simple - 3 consecutive exposures with red, green, and blue filters, hence colour artefacts wherever was any movement, otherwise colours are almost perfect.

[@j.s.wagner2582]

Really remarkable photographic record. Excellent work that leaves one longing for a time long past…

[@robkeeleycomposer]

These are quite wonderful. Thank you!

[@cebenify]

Congrats on making it past 2000 subscribers!

[@HoH]

Thanks!

[@JoeHynes284]

this was a wonderful look at their history

[@solveigcronstrom7787]

Great idea,. Thank you 🤗

[@garypautard1069]

This was damn interesting. We are so lucky to have photographic evidence of this time in Russian history.

[@daseladi]

How do you mean colorized photographs? These are color photographs in every sense of the word.

[@lindsaychristensen2848]

Thank you!

[@elizabethman7313]

Thanks so much

[@scottgranneman9665]

Great job narrating!

[@ivanhicks887]

EXCELLENT THANKYOU !

[@JoelLopezH.]

Se revela un mundo nuevo para mí. Tengo 59,2021. Yo toda mi vida pensé que la ropa antigua era casi toda sin color, en tonos grises y verde-oscuro ; pero estas fotos me muestran que no es así. No sabía que existían los azules, los amarillos , rojos etc.

[@patriciahowellcassity767]

Thank you

[@knightofevropa9720]

Very interesting video!

[@HoH]

Considering your channel name, you’re going to love the project I am currently working on! 😉

[@knightofevropa9720]

@@HoH hahahhaha

[@jeanpaulcandau]

These are magnificent and fascinating colorised photographs. Their quality is as you say awesome. Thank you very much for uploading.I have read many books on the Taiping rebellion, the greatest civil war in history. It wouild be great if you can enhance your presentation of this incredible vent. Thank you for everything

[@HoH]

Thank you for the nice comment. There certainly are some events and details I have not covered in my video about the Taiping rebellion. My fear is that as my videos approach 20+ minutes they will not be enjoyable for the general audience that enjoys history. I think 10-17 minutes are the sweet spot to keep it enjoyable, engaging and delve a bit into depth. Then again, perhaps you're right and it might be worth revisiting the Taiping rebellion in the future.

[@jeanpaulcandau]

Thank you for your answer, I am pretty sure that a 60 mn presentation with pictures would not bother viewers. The Taiping rebellion is an important and complicated event in the history of humanity and is almost unknown in western countries. Such an injustice ought to be corrected. If it does not bother you, I would be ready to prepare the first part of your presentation for you: situation of China mid 19th century and the causes of the rebellion for instance. Sincerely yours.

[@robokill387]

These are colour photographs, not colorised.

[@TheLemonadedrinker]

@@robokill387 exactly!

[@registoge351]

Simply amazing

[@quarant1353]

Not colorized. REAL color pictures.

[@cheng3580]

No way.. this is awesome but this seems like it was taken with a smart phone!

[@JuanMatteoReal]

Very interesting pfp you've got there.

[@jackray1337]

Wow. Very nice.

[@monkofdarktimes]

To think few knows about it and how it looks it was taken so long ago

[@arailway8809]

0:15 Please identify the white tubes on his jacket.

[@connell212]

wonderful collection..... abut the same time, a wealthy french banker, Albert Khan, employed professional photographers to amass 72,000 colour (autochrome) photographs of peoples in 50 countries. Its sort of like a 'google earth of people'. This was made into a BBC program and there is a BBC book with a selection of the photographs. Certainly worth a look.

[@cj.t.7321]

The MAN who's face IS In the Photo at 10:00 - the person on the bottom - the Left.. It looks like the 'face' was 'super-imposed'.. Just Wondering if you noticed that Also?

[@vickilindberg6336]

Beautiful. Wish there wete labeled.

[@gordonjamieson861]

I seen a black and white photograph of officers studying at the school of military Engeneering st petersburg before the revelution .that was 30 + years ago in a libery book that had a had a forwarding of a princess Romanoff ,I have serched for it but had no luck .If you could help i would be gratfull

[@ed9763]

Was there any need for the prolonged narrative?

[@rubytuesday4564]

Taylor Swift's team should see those head coverings and costumes. I think if they were worn in her next tour, Taylor would have a solid win.

[@gazmj1400]

I'm sorry did you say one of the last European empires to fall ?? Or one of the frist to fall,

[@deanronson6331]

It's hyperbole to claim that these photos look like they might've been taken in the 1930's or much later. Some of them are excellent for their age but nothing approaching the resolution and color quality of the best photographic technology available a couple of decades later.

[@gatheringleaves]

A bygone world in full colour

[@marxistsaw8849]

“I’d take this picture of a man not handing his all of his melons over to Kulaks so he doesn’t get whipped, over a factory worker, aka a proletariat, owning their own production process in real time as enforced by article 5 of the Soviet Constitution,” and then you say this on a compute you have that was made by a factory worker who probably didn’t own their own production, because they weren’t the endowed the monetary value of what this 250 year old US empire did to vast amount Indigenous nations across North America, who have yet to own their own production or form their own republics.

[@harrydebastardeharris987]

Like many country’s then,a Nation of Uniforms.

[@mauriziamarigo9764]

Immagini fantastiche

[@neatpaws]

🤗

[@2007christian]

FANTASTIC

[@HoH]

Glad you think so!

[@w.loczykij5354]

Colorized?

[@jcguerrin]

Pensez aux français qui aiment la Russie, merci beaucoup de mettre les traductions en français merci pour c3s photos magnifiques. Isabelle russo ukrainienne par mon père Isabelle

[@marxistsaw8849]

“Before the Uzbek Soviets installed “puppet government” over theirselves” hmm, I think that’s called democracy bro. Needless to say, it doesn’t exist in Monarchal empires.

[@keikairin2038]

Why does this make it look like the Persians took over Russia with those Islamic men?

[@Nizam-h2m]

Prokudin is a muslim mame Fakherudeen

[@A0111.]

No. Prokuda is a Slavic noun, like the nickname of an ancestor, so Prokudin is by the rules of Russian grammar - the one who belongs to (the family of) Prokuda

[@davisoneill]

This Fascist commentator seems really broken up that the workers took power in Russian in 1917.