roses at her sash

26TH AUGUST 2010 ♥

From Russia with colour...

On my late night trawlings of our friend the internet, I came across these absolutely incredible pictures, taken exactly a century ago in Russia and surrounding areas. The photographer was Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944); according to the article he "used a specialised camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images."

It's so hard to believe how real everything appears - the colours, the people, the buildings, the same trees and grass we are all familiar with. I feel as though the high quality images of these 1910 people would not be out of place on The Sartorialist today - the rich, deep colours of their fabrics, intricate gold and red trimming, detailled floral patterns, simple head scarves, and most of all their emotive expressions which make me want to know their stories.

Here are a few of my favourites, but please follow the link to Boston.com to see the full set along with detailed captions and more information. I promise your mind will be warped! These were honestly taken in 1910!











All photography by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed1_HP

- C x