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

About this episode

This episode explores the life of Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii and the impact of his color photography on the Russian Empire.

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…

People in this episode

Host: James White

Topics covered

• photography
• Russian Empire
• Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii
• history
• cultural heritage

Keywords

• Prokudin-Gorskii
• color photography
• Russian history
• Nicholas II
• cultural expeditions

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Library of Congress, Al’pina Pablisher, Duke University Press, Central European House of Photography

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