From bottled mineral water to modern oil transportation systems, monasteries to tea
plantations and cultural diversity to floral beauty, Prokudin-Gorskii documents a pictorial
archive of Russian empire that is matchless, writes Umer Nangiana
Photographs, coloured and more than a century old. They offer striking visage of a lost world, once an emerging industrial power ruling over areas with diverse religious, cultural and linguistic influences.
Welcome to the Russian empire in pictures, scientifically captured on a unique camera and developed into coloured prints by Russian chemist Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii between 1904 and 1915.
Soon after his work completed, the empire collapsed in the wake of October Revolution 1917 and the World War I.
However, what Prokudin-Gorskii created with his photography techniques todate remains unique and offers a journey back in time in a distinct way. He captured moments from history which the written word could possibly never narrate.
Some of his 100-year-old coloured pictures in vivid frames are currently on display at Katara Cultural Village’s Building 18 courtesy the Ambassador of Georgia to Qatar Ekaterine Meiering-Mikadze and Qatar Photographic Society (QPS).
The exhibition termed ‘Georgia and her neighbours in early colour photography. At the crossroads of Islam in Caucasus’ will be on display through August 4.
The images on display unveil some amazing facts about the Russian empire’s territories particularly Georgia, depicting its natural beauty and remarkably higher level of material development. From bottled mineral water to modern oil transportation systems, monasteries to tea plantations and cultural diversity to floral beauty, Prokudin-Gorskii documented a pictorial archive of the empire that is matchless.
The story behind his journey across the empire for the photographic project and his photography techniques used to capture the images makes this virtual tour back in time even more interesting.
“There is no known replica or illustration of Prokudin-Gorskii’s camera. It is very likely that he used the three-colour-camera designed by Adolf Miethe in 1902 that was built by the Berlin-based camera maker Wilheim Bermpohl.
This camera type was subsequently commercialised so that Prokudin-Gorskii would not have had to reinvent it,” states one of the facts in the photographer’s biography accompanying his work displayed at the exhibition.
The Russian chemist-turned photographer did not only focus on obtaining coloured images but gave complete attention to capturing all details about his subjects. The pictures are taken from all the right angles and the selection of background in many portraits is artistically selected.
A selection of pictures shows the views of the city of Tiflis from the grounds of Saint David Church, Dagestani couples, a steam room for treatment of bamboo in Chakva, a tea factory in Chakva besides other portraits and landscapes.
Every picture has a story to it. One of them shows beautiful flowers, Victoria Regia, Planted in June 1912 in the Botanical Garden in Sukhumi. The photographer noted, “Grown outdoors in Europe for the first time.”
In another portrait of the Emir of Bukhara Alim Khan created between 1912 and 1915, he is shown royally dressed holding a sword.
“As in other empires, local elites who were first subdued and then co-opted by the central government continued to decide over local affairs. Seyyid Mir Mohammad Alim Khan was born in 1880 and recognised as local ruler by the Tsar. After failing in fighting the Bolsheviks in 1920, he went into exile to Afghanistan where he died in April 1944,” says the picture.
In one amazing picture, Prokudin-Gorskii captured the distribution of water system in Borzhomi between 1904 and 1915. It shows men pushing cart laden with bottles while others stand and watch. To the side are bundles of packed bottles.
“Since the late 19th Century, Georgian mineral water Borjomi has been an award winning natural mineral sparkling water. Borjomi developed early into one of the famous Spas in Georgia. Together with other resorts, it is currently being redeveloped,” says the caption.
A picture of ‘Ekaterine Spring’ reveals another fact about the area of Borjomi which has several important springs named at the time after members of the aristocracy. The water produced here was also marketed abroad under the label ‘Source Catherine’. The pictures of bamboo trees show that Prokudin-Gorskii used such objects not only to document the flora of Georgia but also to experiment in different shades of colours.
How did he manage to do so that early in time when coloured photography was not heard of?
Prokudin-Gorskii created his photos by using a camera that exposed one oblong glass plate three times. Photographic emulsion was applied on the glass plate that was about 9cm wide and 24cm long. The glass plate was placed vertically into the camera.
He then photographed the same scene three times in a fairly rapid sequence using a red, green and a blue filter one after another. The glass plate was thereby moving down inside the camera, creating three separate exposures through the different filters.
The photo negative on the glass plate appeared in black and white. But each black and white recording was different as the glass plate with the photographic emulsion was exposed through the three filters of different colours.
Prokudin-Gorskii created positive glass slides of these negatives and projected them through a projector with three lenses of which each had a same colour filter as the ones used for the exposures when creating the photo. In the slide presentation the three exposures were superimposed to form a full colour image on a screen.
In an image taken from a mountain top showing Batumi, town of Nobel from Fort II, the photographer openly displayed his skills with capturing details. Today, a vibrant resort city on the Black Sea, Batumi developed at the turn of the 20th century into an important oil port through which Cespian oil from Baku was shipped.
This view shows the then modern oil storage facilities. Oil was shipped in barrels that were produced locally.
Born in Murom, a town south-west of Nizhny Novgorod in 1863, Prokudin-Gorskii was educated as a chemist in St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris. In 1902, his cooperation with Adolf Miethe, Professor of Photography, in Berlin laid the foundation of his photographic work.
Miethe had designed a camera for colour photography using glass plates while Prokudin-Gorskii continued work on sensitised photographic emulsions.
In 1904, he took the first colour pictures in Dagestan. Around 1908, Prokudin-Gorskii envisioned and formulated a plan for a full documentation of the lands ruled by Tsar Nicholas II.
After a personal meeting between the two in May 1909, the ruler provided the photographer with a specially equipped rail road car darkroom. Tsar Nicholas II also issued permits that granted Prokudin-Gorskii access to restricted areas and ensured cooperation from the empire’s bureaucracy.
In 1918, the Russian scientist and photographer left on a business trip to Norway which eventually turned into emigration as the Russian Civil War and the murder of the Tsar and his family made it impossible for him to return. From Norway, he moved on to England in 1919 and France in 1921 where he could get most of his photographic archive.
Prokudin-Gorskii continued work under modest circumstances, writing his memoir and died in Paris in September 1944, shortly after the liberation of the city by the Allies. In 1948, his unique pictures were purchased by the Library of Congress from his heirs.