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

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

 

Port Batumi and its surroundings

Муллы в мечети Азизия. Батум.

Mullahs in the Azizia mosque. Batum.


Mullah is the Shi'a name for Islamic clergy.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-03967. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


По р. Каролицхали. [сидит С. М. Прокудин-Горский].

Along the Karolitskhali River [S.M.Prokudin-Gorsky].


Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky (1863 – 1944) poses near a mountain stream, thought to be the Karolitskhali River in the Caucasus Mountains near the seaport of Batumi on the eastern coast of the Black Sea.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-03991. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Группа рабочих на сборе чая. Гречанки.

Group of tea gatherers. Greek women. Chakva.


Workers, identified by Prokudin-Gorsky as Greeks, pose while harvesting tea from plantations spreading over rolling hills near Chakva, on the east coast of the Black Sea. This region of the Russian Empire, in present day Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, had a significant Greek minority, some families going back many centuries to the Classical and Byzantine eras.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04430. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Чаква. Аллея Xaмаepoпceй.

Chakvi. Alley of Chamaerops excelsus [windmill palm].


Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-prokc-21512. Digital color rendering by Jan Hubička based on color composite by Blaise Agüera y Arcas.

Чаква. Бамбук Моозо.

Chakvi. Moozo Bamboo trees.


Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-03977. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Чайная фабрика в Чакве. Мастер китаец Лау-Джань-Джау.

Tea factory in Chakvi. Chinese master teagrower Lao Zhang Zhou.


A Chinese foreman poses with established tea plants and new plantings at a tea farm and processing plant in Chakva, a small town just north of Batumi. The semi-tropical climate of the Black Sea coast in modern-day Georgia was ideal for growing tea.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04429. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Евгениевский источник. Боржом.

Evgenievsky Spring. Borzhomi.


Another mineral water spring in Borzhomi (1).

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-prokc-21577. Digital color rendering by Jan Hubička based on color composite by Blaise Agüera y Arcas.

Екатериненский источник. Боржом.

Catherine's Spring, Borzhomi.


Borzhomi (1) is a small town in the Caucasus Mountains in the interior of what is now the Republic of Georgia. Noted for its mineral waters, it was a fashionable spa at the end of the nineteenth century. Shown here are elegantly dressed visitors posing for a photograph by the Ekaterinin, (“Catherine's”) Spring.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04432. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


Общий вид Ликанского дворца от р. Куры. Боржом.

General view of the Likani Palace from the Kura River (2). The town of Borzhomi (1).


The Likany foothills of the Caucasus Mountains provide a dramatic backdrop for a palace built on the Kura River, close to the Russian border with Turkey and near the town of Borzhomi in present-day Georgia.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, , LC-DIG-ppmsc-04433. Digital color rendering by Walter Frankhauser.


All photographs Prokudin-Gorsky took in Batumi, Chakva and Borzhomi
Search the archive of Prokudin-Gorsky on US Library of Congress