100-year-old "color" Photos

Tyrson

Cadet
From a co-worker of mine. The links below deal with an online exhibit at the Library of Congress. They show color photographs taken by a Russian photographer (Prokudin-Gorskii) before the first World War using a process that he developed. The LOC has taken his plates and produced digital images from them. It is amazing to see color images from that far back, and these are wonderful pictures.

European Tribune - An Empire Past In Color

The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated: The Empire That Was Russia | Exhibitions - Library of Congress
 
I've seen them before.

I think one of the reasons they're so amazing isn't just that he managed to get them in color, it's that the colors are so VIBRANT, and the pictures are really gorgeous.
 
Yeah, I'm surprised I hadn't seen them until now - they've been digitized for a few years.

I loved all the pictures depicting the diversity of the many ethnicities of the Russian Empire, but my favorite is the Nilova Monastery shot:

p87-6040.jpg


There are photographers that can't pull that off those kind of images in 2007, let alone 1907.
 
I was here, all ready to look for photoshop recoloration but..no, those look like the real thing. Even has imperfections on some images with the rainbow marks.

Very nice! Not only because of the color, but the sharpness of the images.
 
I'm very impressed with this one. Sometimes it seems as if there is a disconnect with black & white photos from bygone days. But this seemed to bring the 'realness' of the era to life. Truly impressive.
 
Were I still a collage/photography artist I'd be gagga. As I'm not really I can still say "Wow." Very dreamy and almost impressionistic, I'd love to see a rebirth of his technique. Hells, artist till use pinhole cameras to for effect, I can see lots of potential there.

((And also: Basch! Basch Basch Basch! *drool* ))
 
Ehh, they're pictures. Just because someone actually got something right doesn't mean I'm going to go loopy over it. All I can say is that the other photographers should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. At least, the ones from future generations who still couldn't top it. Pathetic.

Oh, and I agree with you, WM.
 
I wasn't saying that they necessarily were fakes, just that they looked pretty fake. Like, that one white building has a distinct CG aftertaste to it.
 
Well, if they were fake, the before & after link I provided would have taken a Photoshop effort of epic proportions.

It would probably take a class or two of photography history to get some to understand how this was done, but there is a good explanation on the link I provided originally. In simplest terms, the red/green/blue glass plates (one for each camera lens that was used) were not 100% aligned, so the ever-so-slight difference made the picture seem a bit 'painted.' Notice the 'rainbow effect' on some areas of some pictures? Furthermore, monasteries in Russia were 'whitewashed,' and were stripped of that whitewash once the Soviets turned those monasteries into 'concentration camps.' So that may be another aspect that makes the pictures look 'painted.'

Prokudin-Gorskii was a pioneer in what he did, but was a victim of the times and never had an opportunity to get worldwide recognition for his works before he died. His popularity in Russia was stamped out after the Bolsheviks took over, he kept himself quiet during his exile in France, and he passed away only a month after France was liberated in World War II.

It wasn't until after his death and the subsequent donation of his plates to the Library of Congress (1948) did he get renown in the photography world - which was around the time that color photographs slowly began to appear in the mainstream as the technology was made more efficient and less expensive.

((Aini, it took me forever to find a Judge Basch Gabranth pic, but I never give up :D2 ))
 
It would probably take a class or two of photography history to get some to understand how this was done, but there is a good explanation on the link I provided originally. In simplest terms, the red/green/blue glass plates (one for each camera lens that was used) were not 100% aligned, so the ever-so-slight difference made the picture seem a bit 'painted.' Notice the 'rainbow effect' on some areas of some pictures? Furthermore, monasteries in Russia were 'whitewashed,' and were stripped of that whitewash once the Soviets turned those monasteries into 'concentration camps.' So that may be another aspect that makes the pictures look 'painted.'

I think the way they look adds to the appeal. They seem very crisp and the colors are just beautiful. They're better than a lot of pictures taken these days.
 
You can tell they took a while to get the image, though. Especially when looking at water. Those poor people in them had to stay still for a long time.
 
You can tell they took a while to get the image, though. Especially when looking at water. Those poor people in them had to stay still for a long time.

I dont think so.. its not three different takes, its one take with three lenses. So I guess its pretty much "snapshots", as the sun provides enough light for short exposure even back in the days...

The sharpness, compared to other old b/w pictures, is probably because its three "not so sharp"-pictures merged together and, by that, provides better resolution.

Even though it was possible to create colour pictures, you still needed three projectors to show them, like three slide projectors on one screen. And you couldn't develop them on paper. So the knowledge about colour pictures is old, but the technology was clumsy and bad, until it was possible to massproduce colourfilm.

Nice find Tyrson!
 
Ahh many art classes ago, I saw these photos and quite of few of the first color efforts by Ansel Adams.
Imagine having saw those projected as originally intended? I bet it looked phenominal. What I like most about history is the fact even 10,000 years ago man was innovative. Everyone likes to think because they live in the present they knew something the people in the past didn't.
 
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