At the beginning of the 20th century, a color separation method was invented to create color photographs. This technology, which in its time was rather complicated, made it possible to achieve amazing realism and excellent quality of images. The pioneer of color photography in Russia was the scientist and innovator Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, whose 155th anniversary was celebrated in 2018.
The Glorious Family
Few facts are known about Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky’s childhood and formative years. He was born in his ancestral estate in the Vladimir province. According to one version, the Gorsky family was the descendant of a Tatar prince who left The Golden Horde. He adopted Orthodox Christianity and even fought under the banners of Dmitry Donskoy on Kulikovo Field and subsequently was endowed with a patrimonial estate Gora and, therefore, was given the name of Gorsky. His grandson Prokofy Alferievich Gorsky was nicknamed Prokuda, or, a trickster, a prankster. Afterwards, his descendants were named Prokudin-Gorskys.
This old family gave Russia a lot of famous people, among them were military men, diplomats, leaders of the local nobility, and even one of the first Russian playwrights, Mikhail Ivanovich Prokudin-Gorsky. But the most renowned representative of the clan was the Russian inventor of color photography.
Sergei Mikhailovich might have studied chemistry, as in 1896 he, as a member of the Chemical Technology Department of the Imperial Russian Technical Society (IRTS), delivered a report “On the current state of foundry practice in Russia.” Since the 1890s and until the October revolution, he had headed the board of the association of the state-owned bell-casting, copper-smelting and steel-casting factories in Gatchnina. Simultaneously, he was an avid enthusiast of photography.
In 1898, Prokudin-Gorsky became a full member of the photography section of the IRTS. At one of the exhibitions he showed photographic pictures of paintings by artists of the 17–18th centuries. In black-and-white pictures, he managed to accurately convey light and shadow, as well as reflect the richness of the palette and the individual styles of particular artists. These photos were awarded a bronze medal. In the same year, Prokudin-Gorsky presented a report “On photographing shooting stars (star rains)” and helped launch the first practical photography courses in St. Petersburg.
In 1901, Prokudin-Gorsky opened his photography studio in the Russian capital city. Then he had his own chemical laboratory, where classes in photography would be held, and later, in 1906, the editorial board of his “Amateur Photographer” magazine would sit. In the laboratory, Prokudin-Gorsky began working hard on getting the color image.
The Method of Color Separation
In 1902 Sergei Mikhailovich traveled to Germany to study color sensitization and three-color photography at the photomechanical school headed by photochemistry professor Adolf Miethe. It was the German practitioner who introduced to the general public a new model of a color photo camera that used the color separation principle; also, he invented a projector to show color photographs.
Three years later, Prokudin-Gorsky obtained a patent in his own version of the color sensitizer, whose sensitivity was critically superior to all then available devices, including those used by Adolf Miethe. Thanks to the new composition, the Russian innovator managed to make the silver-bromine photography plates sensitive in the entire spectrum. Thus, Prokudin-Gorsky improved the method of color separation. Thanks to the master, color photographic images could be relatively easier copied.
Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky used ordinary black-and-white photographic plates and a special camera of his own design, which quickly took three pictures of the same object through three different filters — blue, green and red. Then he developed three negatives from which it was possible to obtain the necessary number of copies for the production of transparencies. The latter, in turn, were used as the basis for the manufacture of clichés and prints in the photomechanical workshop. This principle of operation that Prokudin-Gorsky abided by throughout his life, is similar to the color separation used in modern printing.
In January of 1905, Prokudin-Gorsky demonstrated about 70 color pictures to the members of the Imperial Russian Technical Society: views of Dagestan and Finland, winter landscapes, genre paintings, pictures of the setting sun… The crisp colors of the photographs impressed the audience so much that the demonstration ended in a standing ovation.
The Russian Photographic Chronicle
In the same year, Sergei Mikhailovich embarked on his first long trip across Russia, and in the course of this trip he made about 400 color photographs. Before that journey, he applied to the St. Petersburg Red Cross with a truly amazing project. He wished to capture Russia in color and, for the first time in the nation’s history, publish these pictures as a set of color cards. Prokudin-Gorsky believed that “an important purpose pursued by color photography is to leave an accurate document for the future,” that it is “a precious means to save from oblivion all the crumbling monuments.” The Red Cross allocated the photographer an advance budget, and Prokudin-Gorsky took to the road. He took pictures in St. Petersburg, Kiev, Kursk, Sevastopol, Novorossiysk, Sochi, Gagra. However, the first Russian revolution broke his plans, the Red Cross could not sponsor the project any longer and the shooting sessions were suspended.
A year later, Prokudin-Gorsky joined an expedition of the Russian Geographical Society to Turkestan to photograph the solar eclipse there. However, it proved impossible to capture the event in color because of the dense clouds, but the master took many pictures of ancient monuments of Bukhara, Samarkand and colorful locals.
Soon an idea struck Sergei Mikhailovich to create a color photo portrait of his most famous contemporary, the writer Leo Tolstoy. Two days in May of 1908 Prokudin-Gorsky spent in Tolstoy’s estate in Yasnaya Polyana, where he took one of the most well-known photo portraits in the history of Russia.
The photographer’s meeting with Nicholas II played a crucial role in his career. The Czar was fascinated by Prokudin-Gorsky’s work and his main idea to capture in “natural colors” all the main sights of the Russian Empire, from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Then the photographer got everything he wanted: “I was given, by the highest order, a Pullman carriage, specially equipped according to my instructions. In it, a beautiful laboratory was arranged, which could turn, at will, from a lighted room into a darkroom allowing me to work on the road and during stops, as well as living quarters for myself and my companions. For the work on waterways… the Ministry provided me with a separate steamer, specially adapted for my needs, with full complement. Besides, in case of need, I was provided with a small steamer capable of going in shallow water, and a trailed barge… For traveling in the Urals and the pass in the Ural ridge in Yekaterinburg a new Ford car was sent, suitable for tough roads.”
The photographer planned to take ten thousand photographs in the course of ten years. He saw great educational potential in his efforts. According to his plan, photo projectors were to be installed in schools and colleges everywhere, so that the young generation could enjoy the beauties of the country by watching color slides. Prokudin-Gorsky even coined a name for this new subject — Motherlandology. The master so described the purpose of his work: “Compiling a systematic collection of photographic images in natural colors (with explanatory texts) of the sights of Russia in the church, historical, ethnographic, industrial and artistic themes with the purpose of obtaining material for Motherlandology. To awaken love for the Motherland and an interest in the study of its beauty and inexhaustible wealth, without which it is unthinkable to nurture true patriotic feelings in our youth, is such an important goal that it fully justifies the means that must be spent for its achievement.”
Later, while in exile, Sergei Mikhailovich would sum up his expeditions. He managed to photograph the Mariinsky waterway, Turkestan, the Urals, the Volga from its source to Nizhny Novgorod, the monuments related to the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, the Caucasus and Dagestan, the Mugalsky steppe, Borodino and the Murmansk railway. Prokudin-Gorsky’s “Collections of sights of Russia in natural colors” include more than 1,900 color pictures and about 1,000 black-and-white ones.
Life outside Russia
After the October revolution, Prokudin-Gorsky was enrolled in the Board of the Expedition for the preparation of government papers and appointed professor of the Photo and Cinema Institute established in 1918. In March 1918, the last exhibition of his pictures was held in Russia. The exhibition “Wonders of Photography” that was opened in the Nicholas hall of the Winter Palace in Petrograd, presented the pictures taken while traveling.
When summer came, the news of the execution of the Royal family was spread across the country. After he learned it, Sergey Mikhailovich left Russia. He spent some time in Norway and England, then moved to Nice and worked with the Lumiere brothers. When he finally arrived to Paris, where his family lived after escaping from Russia, Prokudin-Gorsky, together with his sons and daughter, opened “Christmas Tree” photo studio.
The photographer deeply grieved his separation from the homeland, so he often gave lectures to Russian young émigrés on “Images of Russia”, “Russia in Pictures”, “Central Russia”, “Our Motherland”.
The family was lucky to take out of the country most of the photographic plates, but during the Second World War those were kept in a damp basement. Almost as soon as Paris was liberated by the allies, Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky died. After some time, his sons noticed that the photographic plates were damaged by mold and cracks. In an effort to save the outstanding Russian cultural artefacts, Prokudin-Gorsky’s heirs sold his archive to the U.S. Library of Congress.
Today, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky’s photographic pictures help remember the diverse and multicultural Russia of the early 20th century — the country, whose many monuments can be seen only in the eternal color photographs of the great master.
O.Vasiliadi