Photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II between 1909 and 1912. He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images. The high quality of the images, combined with the bright colors, make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking at photographs taken 100 years ago - when these photographs were taken, neither the Russian Revolution nor World War I had yet begun. Here are six of the hundreds of color images made available by the Library of Congress, which purchased the original glass plates back in 1948.
A man and woman posed in Dagestan.
A general view of the Nikolaeskii Cathedral from the southwest in Mozhaisk, 1911.
Emir Seyyid Mir mohammed Alim Khan, the Emir of Bukhara, seated holding a sword in Kuhara (present-day Uzbekistan).
A group of Jewish children with a Rabbi in Samarkand.
View of Tiflis (Tblisi), Georgia from the grounds of Saint David Church.
A man and woman posed in Dagestan.
A general view of the Nikolaeskii Cathedral from the southwest in Mozhaisk, 1911.
Emir Seyyid Mir mohammed Alim Khan, the Emir of Bukhara, seated holding a sword in Kuhara (present-day Uzbekistan).
A group of Jewish children with a Rabbi in Samarkand.
View of Tiflis (Tblisi), Georgia from the grounds of Saint David Church.
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