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s.m. prokudin-gorskii

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library of congress s.m. prokudin-gorskii collection:
“the sergei mikhailovich prokudin-gorskii collection features color photographic surveys of the vast russian empire made between 1905 and 1915 ~ frequent subjects among the 2,607 distinct images include people, religious architecture, historic sites, industry and agriculture, public works construction, scenes along water and railway transportation routes, and views of villages and cities ~ an active photographer and scientist, prokudin-gorskii (1863-1944) undertook most of his ambitious color documentary project from 1909 to 1915... around 1907, prokudin-gorskii envisioned and formulated a plan to use the emerging technological advancements that had been made in color photography to systematically document the russian empire ~ through such an ambitious project he intended to educate the school children of russia with his "optical color projections" of the vast and diverse history, culture, and modernization of the empire ~ outfitted with a specially equipped railroad car-darkroom provided by tsar nicholas II, and in possession of two permits that granted him cooperation from the empire's bureaucracy and access to restricted areas, prokudin-gorskii documented the russian empire...”

source url: (click on above images for specific page): https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/prok/
additional article (museum of photography sechtl & vosecek): http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/en/expozice5.html