Self-portrait by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, early pioneer of color photography, Russian Empire, 1912
Self-portrait by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, early pioneer of color photography, Russian Empire, 1912
More and More when I see posts like this on social media, I look with a skeptical eye. I did a little googling and was happy to confirm this is legit. It's pretty cool seeing color photos this old. Almost like time travel.
Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky did a large number of these in what-was-then the Russian Empire. They have such vibrancy in their coloring, I love them. It's not only fascinating pieces of history, but gorgeous photography in its own right!
That's amazing! He must have been a genius.
Damn. Are you sure these weren't shot on iPhone? 😂 Such high quality.
This picture is actually a lot more impressive than it looks, because there were no color cameras available when it was taken. Instead, he had to take three different pictures, using three different color filters like RGB, and then combine them to make it color.
From one source:
Prokudin-Gorsky's camera design required a camera operator to take three individual negatives after each other. Given that Prokudin-Gorsky is seen posing in the image, it is more likely that one of his assistants took the picture.
To this day, nobody knows exactly what camera Prokudin-Gorsky used, as no documentation of his equipment is known to exist, but it was likely a large wooden camera with a special holder for a sliding glass negative plate, taking three sequential monochrome photographs, each through a different coloured filter.
This sounds similar to when I took 3 different pictures of a panoramic view and stitched them together. It took me hours and hours to get it right. Now you can just point your phone and scroll it across the view and the camera will automatically stitch it all together.
If you haven’t seen the Technology Connections video about how early color photographs worked, it’s an interesting watch. Gorsky gets a mention in there too!
So how did he trigger the shutter remotely? Alternatively if it was done using a long exposure why doesn't the water look different, and why isn't there a blue of him moving into position? Full disclosure, I'm a photography newb. If someone else operated the camera for him, is it still considered a self portrait?
The water does have a blur. It's just a pretty calm day and it's a gentle stream. As for no blur on the guy, maybe he had an assistant?
I was wondering if that was the case with the water. Maybe it was just really clear. If he used an assistant, is it still a self portrait? Serious question.
I believe he had an assistant or assistants.
Wonder how long the exposure was on this?