100+ Years of Color

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii was a pioneering color photographer working in Russia between 1909 and 1915. Yes, color photographer. His method involved making three exposures on black and white glass plate negatives, each using a different color filter, and the photographs were displayed using a special projector projected each plate through a color filter, combining them into a single image on the screen.

The Library of Congress has made a collection of his images available on the internet, using a process that scans each plate and then combines them digitally to make color photographs. The results are stunning. For ease in seeing the collection, the Denver Post has an blog post on their web site about the collection and have all the images on a single web page. It's definitely worth the time to take a look at these historic photographs, and if you're interested to read the history of the photographer and the process.

• Color Photography from Russia in the Early 1900's (Denver Post)
• The Empire That Was Russia (Library of Congress), main exhibit site
• Photographer to the Tsar (Library of Congress), biography
• Making Color Images from Prokudin-Gorskii's Negatives (Library of Congress), process