Mary with the eyes of the pioneer of Russian color photography
October 05, 2017 | 09:22 |1814
... These color photographs are stored in the library of the US Congress. For a long time they were not available to the general public, but now... Interest in Mary, that is now the twin-city of the Russian city of Orel, which became known following the visit of Vladimir Putin to Turkmenistan, continues to grow. Learning the history of this and other Turkmen cities is possible through the pre-revolutionary pictures. Especially - unique images of the pioneer of color photography in Russia Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky.Leonid KIYASHKO, journalist, Russian Federation
The images he made in the Murgab valley, near the mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar and other picturesque places, today are not rarely seen in the Russian social networks.
The person who made the first color photos, this year would have been ... 154 years.
The date is not round, but it attracted the attention of photographers. And revising picturesque landscapes, they admired not only such cities on the Volga, as the world-famous Ples in the Ivanovo region, but also the Murghab valley that is in Turkmenistan.
In online communities dedicated to the pioneer of color photography in Russia, Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, one can often see footage from the departments of a cotton plant in the Sovereign Estate erected on the outskirts of the then Russian Empire - now the city of Bayramali in Turkmenistan. Practically the whole cycle of the work is visible here. From raw delivery, to cotton knitting machines, compacting ready-made bales, packing and so on...
And how beautiful are the collections of seeds of desert plants in the Farap Museum! The mosaic is almost like a kaleidoscope.
Through the eyes of the pioneer of color photography, we can look at the unique hydropower plant Hindukush, the Murgab aryks and vineyards, the ruins of the majestic fortresses of the ancient Merv and, of course, the mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar, already impressive even century ago.
Prokudin-Gorsky was born in Vladimir province, to which then belonged the region in which I currently live. And I can see perfectly well that he captured Russia in the centuries, which we, as the well-known journalist who dedicated a teleproject to the master stated, have already lost.
The photographer was filming life ... becoming history.
Since then, the architecture has changed, moreover, according to the author of the film, not for the better. Life of people, their traditions, clothes - have long changed. But the Turkmens seem to have managed to preserve their traditions. A snapshot taken, for example, near a tent, is almost no different from what is being built today in folk festivals, recreating the image of an ancient village in the days of national holidays.
Being a talented inventor and, importantly, a pupil of Mendeleyev, Prokudin-Gorsky proposed his own special technology for making color transparencies (he had to shoot several times using different filters and combining the results) and was the first to show the color of the life of that time. The request was given personally by Nicholas II, opening access to all the most remote points, where the photographer was delivered to on a specially equipped Ford car, a small steamer and a motor boat.
Travel around the country continued for many years. First in Finland, then in Dagestan, on the Black Sea coast, Ukraine. And, of course, in Turkestan, where famous images of Bukhara emir and Khiva Khan were made. And when he returned from this trip, he photographed Leo Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana, who much interested in his miracle of color shooting.
The pioneer of color photography told about his journey:
"It was necessary to take pictures in very different and often very difficult conditions, and then it was necessary to develop pictures in the laboratory of the car in the evening and sometimes the work was delayed until late at night, especially if the weather was unfavorable and it was necessary to find out whether it would not be necessary to repeat the shooting with another lighting before leaving for the next scheduled point. Then, from the negatives we made copies on the way and added them to the albums."
... These color photographs are stored in the library of US Congress. For a long time they were not available to the general public ... But now on the open spaces of the Internet you can find many pictures.
Please, see them to admire:
