We briefly discussed Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii's color documentary work of the Russian empire around the turn of the century in my Russian & Soviet History class. They're some of the earliest color photos made, and they capture Russia in the years before industrialization.
"His process used a camera that took a series of three monochrome pictures in sequence, each through a different-colored filter. By projecting all three monochrome pictures using correctly colored light, it was possible to reconstruct the original color scene. Any stray movement within the camera's field of view showed up in the prints as multiple "ghosted" images, since the red, green and blue images were taken of the subject at slightly different times." (Wikipedia copy + pasted)
You can poke through some 2,600 photos on the Library of Congress's website. The quantity, quality, and vibrancy of colors is pretty exhilarating. You just might fall in.
(Library of Congress, via Miss Moss)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment