Episode 21: Empire of Light and Colour. The Tale of Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii

The colour photographs of Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii fascinated the imperial public of the early 20th century, persuading Emperor Nicholas II to sponsor expeditions across the empire to chronicle in glorious colour daily life in his realm. In this episode, we follow the life of Prokudin-Gorskii, while also considering the development of photography in the Russian Empire.

Photographs

For the Library of Congress' digitalisation of Prokudin-Gorskii's pictures, please see: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?st=grid&co=prok

A good selection of Karl Bulla's photographs can be found on his Wikipedia page: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D1%83%D0%BB%D0%BB%D0%B0,_%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BB_%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87

Sources

Rossiiskaia imperiia v tsvetnykh fotografiiakh S.M. Prokudina-Gorskogo / The Russian Empire in S. M. Prokudin-Gorsky’s Color Photographs, 1906-1916 (Moscow: Al’pina Pablisher/Krasivaia kniga, 2021).

W. C. Brumfield, Journeys through the Russian Empire: The Photographic Legacy of Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2020).

I. Tchmyreva and E. Berezner, ‘History of Russian Photography, 1900-1938’ in Vaclav Macek, ed., The History of European Photography. 1900-2000. Vol. 1: 1900-1939 (Bratislava: Central European House of Photography, 2010), 510-553.

L. A. Gerd and K. A. Vakh, ‘Odin maloizveztnyi russkii fotograf XIX veka: Gavriil Vasil’evich Riumin’, Novoe iskusstvoznanie, no. 4 (2019), pp. 32-41.

M. Hughes, ‘Every Picture Tells Some Stories: Photographic Illustrations in British Travel Accounts of Russia in the Eve of World War One’, The Slavonic and East European Review, vol. 92, no. 4 (2014), pp. 674-703.

C. Evtuhov, ‘A. O. Karelin and Provincial Bourgeois Photography,’ in V. A. Kivelson and J. Neuberger, eds., Picturing Russia: Explorations in Visual Culture (Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 2008), pp. 113-119.

J. E. Bowlt, ‘Life Painting and Light Painting: Photography and the Early Russian Avant-Garde’, History of Photography, vol. 24, no. 4 (2000), 273-282.

N. Raab, ‘Visualising Civil Society: The Fireman and the Photographer in Late Imperial Russia, 1900-1914’, History of Photography, vol. 31, no. 2 (2007), pp. 151-164.

N. A. Stanulevich, ‘K istorii sudebnoi ekspertizy dokumentov v Rossii na rubezhe XIX-XX vekov’, Fotografiia. Izobrazhenie. Dokument, no. 4 (2013), pp. 4-6.

T. A. Titova, E. G. Guschina, and M. V. Vyatchina, ‘Look into the Camera: Scientists and Photographers in the Kazan Province in the End of the XIX Century’, Man in India, 96(3), (2016), pp. 821-828.

M. Dikovitskaya, ‘Central Asia in Early Photographs: Russian Colonial Attitudes and Visual Culture’ in U. Tomohiko, ed., Empire, Islam, and Politics in Central Eurasia (Sapporo, 2007), pp. 99-133.

Tsvetnye oskolki imperii: Diapozitivy Karla Elofa Berggrena. 1900 – nachalo 1910-kh / Colour Fragments of an Empire: Carl Elof Berggren’s Photographic Lantern Slides. 1900 – Early 1910s (Moscow: Kuchkovo Pole Muzeon, 2020).