The Russian Record: Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii

At first, it seemed too good to be true. A Russian photographer, named Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, working in the years just before World War I, developed an ingenious process for creating color image projections. Take three black and white photographs of the same scene, each one through a different colored filter (green, red, and blue, the three additive primaries). Later, using a special projector, project the plates back through the same filters, and get a single color image on the wall. Not exactly a color photograph, but still very, very interesting and quite ahead of its time.¹

Flash ahead to 1998. The Library of Congress had come to possess the massive collection of Prokudin-Gorskii's black-and-white triple-plates. Recognizing the growing power of digital image manipulation, they conceived of a project to create permanent color images of the collection. This would not be some sort of disturbing, Ted-Turner style colorization of images intended to be seen in black-and-white - the Prokudin-Gorskii plates were always intended to be seen in color. The Library sent out feelers, seeking skilled image experts to produce an exhibit of the colored prints.

This exhibit went on display in 2001, both in the Library's physical space and on the Internet. These were dazzling, full-color shots of people long since dead, landscapes long since paved, and an empire long since overthrown. I discovered the online exhibit in mid-May and was, frankly, overwhelmed; not to knock the fine art of black and white photography, but I'd always felt that the past was somehow obscured by being viewed solely through a greyscale window. To see places, buildings, and especially people in color was to understand, on a very deep level, that they had at one time really, truly existed - that the "Typical Russian Peasant of Figure 32" was not merely some gaunt presence in the side of a textbook, but a genuine person who, if not for temporal chance, could have been my neighbor or my friend. It was touching.

But it was also frustrating. After some rummaging, I discovered that the Library's team had put together only a handful of composite color images - a few dozen out of seemingly hundreds of possible choices. It occurred to me that while I certainly couldn't match the precise skill and dedication of the Library imagers, I could probably put together a reasonably decent color composite given the consumer-grade powers of Adobe PhotoShop. Not knowing precisely how to do this, I made some inquiries to the PhotoShop internet community; a few gurus put their heads together, and after a few days we were all cranking out color composites that, if they could not match the Library's in richness, vibrancy, and life, could at least come close.

Here, in the Gallery, are the ever-expanding fruits of our little hobby. Enjoy; spread the word; and email me any composites of your own creation.

Addison Godel, May 23, 2001

1 - Addendum 2004: My Photography I textbook and an email from one Brian Suda remind me that this process was not exactly original to Prokudin-Gorskii, and had in fact been around since the 1860s - see this website. I don't think this diminishes Prokudin-Gorskii's ingenuity and accomplishments, however.