S. M. Prokudin-Gorsky: The Splendors of Russia in Natural Color 1905–1916

Exhibition of Šechtl & Voseček Museum of Photography February–May 2006

 

Этюд у водопада Кивач.

At Kivach waterfall.


Self-portrait, in the front of Kivach waterfall. Moving objects usually caused “ghosting” in three-color photography, so Gorskii experimented with the quickly moving water, with surprisingly successful results.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04652. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Вид Соловецкого монастыря с суши.

View of the Solovetskii Monastery from land.


The Solovetskii Monastery, founded in the early fifteenth century on an island in the White Sea, was for centuries one of the most important monastic and cultural institutions in Russia. The monastery was partially destroyed in the early Soviet period and became the site of the first major concentration camp of the Gulag system. In the post-Soviet era it is once again a functioning monastery.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-03961. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Военнопленные австрийцы у барака.

Austrian prisoners of war near a barrack. Karelia.


In the early years of the First World War, Prokudin-Gorsky photographed a group of prisoners of war from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The men are probably Poles, Ukrainians, and members of other Slavic nationalities. This image escaped being confiscated by border guards—the fate of the vast majority of politically sensitive images—when Prokudin-Gorsky left Russia for good in 1918—probably because what is being represented is not immediately obvious.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04423. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Группа.

Group. (Myself with two others, Murman)


Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-03940. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


На дрезине у Петрозаводска по Мурманской ж. д.

On a handcar near Petrozavodsk, on the Murmansk Railroad.


Prokudin-Gorsky and others ride the Murmansk Railroad in a handcar along the shores of Lake Onega near Petrozavodsk. From the beginning of Russian railroad construction in the 1850s, rails were laid using a wider gauge (5 feet 3.5 inches) than the standard European one.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-03951. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Ж. д. мост через реку Шую.

Railroad bridge over the Shuia River.


Prokudin-Gorsky photographed a number of railway bridges on his trips. This photograph, with a train on a bridge, is exceptional, since for the photograph, the train had to stop in the middle of the bridge.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-prokc-20246. Digital color rendering by Jan Hubička based on color composite by Blaise Agüera y Arcas.

Неизвестно. В альбомах нет отпечатка.

Unidentified. No print in the albums.


Trans-Siberian Railway (1) metal truss bridge on stone piers, over the Kama River (2) near Perm (3), Ural Mountains Region. The rivers were only one of the natural barriers that the builders of the Trans-Siberian Railroad had to conquer in the feat of constructing a railroad over 6,000 miles, from central European Russia eastward to the Pacific Ocean.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04413. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Ночевка у камня на берегу Чусовой.

Overnight camp at the rock on the bank of the Chusovaya River.


Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky and members of his photographic team are shown here at their overnight campground. The site is near the Chusovaia River, on the western side of the Ural Mountains which divide Europe from Asia.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04445. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Часовня на месте, где был в древнее время основан г. Белозерск.

Chapel on the site where the town of Belozersk was founded in ancient times.


First mentioned in Russian chronicles for the year 862 A.D., the town of Belozersk or “White Lake” was abandoned and relocated several times. The original settlement, commemorated here by a small nineteenth-century wooden chapel, was on the north side of the White Lake in north central European Russia.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04420. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Место заточения князей Воротынских.

Site of the imprisonment of the Vorotynskii princes.


Rooms in Kirillo-Belozerskii Monastery, Kirillov.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-prokc-21033. Digital color rendering by Jan Hubička based on color composite by Blaise Agüera y Arcas.

Крестьянские девушки.

Peasant girls.


Rural area along the Sheksna River, near town of Kirillov.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-03954. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


На сенокосе около привала.

In a hayfield near the landing.


An early autumn scene from 1909 shows farmers taking a short break from their work to pose for their photograph. The location, though unidentified, is probably near the town of Cherepovets in north central European Russia.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04422. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Группа детей.

Group of children.


Russian children sitting on the side of a hill near a church and bell tower in the countryside near White Lake, in the north of European Russia.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04421. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Село Колчеданское.

The village of Kolchedanskoye.


A dirt road passing over a stone bridge leads to the small town of Kolchedan in the Ural Mountains, southeast of Ekaterinburg. Originally founded in 1673 as a frontier stockade, by the time this photo was taken in 1912, the town was a center for sandstone mining and processing and had two substantial stone church buildings, including a convent with a school.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04446. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Работа на Бакальском руднике.

Work at the Bakalsk ore mine.


The Ural Mountain region is noted for the richness of its iron deposits and ores. The Bakaly hills, in the area outside the city of Ekaterinburg, provide the locale for a small-scale family mining operation.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04428. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Формовка художественного литья.

Molding of art castings.


Founded in 1747, the Kasli Iron Works, was located in the heart of the Ural Mountains between the cities of Ekaterinburg (1) and Cheliabinsk (2)—a region rich in iron ore. The plant was known for the high quality of its cast iron products and for its highly-skilled work force, which numbered over three thousand persons at the time this photograph was taken.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04425. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Деталь храма.

Detail of the Church.


One of the most beautiful churches was built in the years 1883 – 1907 on the place where Tsar Alexander II was killed.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-03947. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Хижина поселенца Артемия по прозвищу Кота, живущего на этом месте более 40 лет.

Hut of a settler Artemii nicknamed Kot (cat) who has been living on this place for more than 40 years.


Siberia.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-prokc-20791. Digital color rendering by Jan Hubička based on color composite by Blaise Agüera y Arcas.

Пинхус Карлинский, 84 года, 66 лет на службе. Надсмотрщик Черниговского водоспуска.

Pinkhus Karlinsky, 84 Years old, 66 years in service. Supervisor of the Chernigov flood gates.


Pinkhus Karlinskii stands along the Mariinskii Canal system. The canal system, known today as the Volga-Baltic Waterway (2), was constructed to link the extensive river system of the Volga (1) and its tributaries to provide access from the interior of European Russia to the Baltic Sea (3).

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-03966. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Пожарная команда в г. Вытегре.

Fire Brigade exercise in the town of Vytegra.


Vytegra, river, c. 45 mi (70 km) long, rising near Lake Kovzhas, NW European Russia and flowing generally NW into Lake Onega. It is an important part of the Volga-Baltic Waterway. At its mouth is the city of Vytegra, a center for the lumber industry and for ship and farm-implement repairs.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-prokc-20954. Digital color rendering by Jan Hubička based on color composite by Blaise Agüera y Arcas.

Гонки на канале Петра I, г. Шлиссельбург.

Lumber rafts on the Peter I Canal, town of Schlusselburg.


Logs fastened together as rafts make their way down the Peter I Canal near the small town of Shlisselburg, now called Petrokrepost. Located on Lake Ladoga, the town is forty miles east of St. Petersburg.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04417. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Кольчуга и шлем Преподобного Далмата.

Saint Dalmat's hauberk and helmet.


The helmet shown on photograph was believed to be the helmet of the founder of the Monastery, the Reverend Elder Dalmat. Rev. Elder Dalmat founded the monastery in 16th century (his real name was Dimitry Ivanovich Mokrinsky).

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04659. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Город Далматово. Вид на западную часть с колокольни монастыря.

City of Dalmatov. View of the western section from the monastery's bell tower.


Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04656. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.