Colour photos from 1909

Shinji

This is pretty amazing stuff:

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/gorskii.html

Some bloke travelled around Russia between 1909 and 1915 with the permission of the Tsar, taking photographs of the country. That's not odd; what IS unusual is that he took the photographs with three filters, and then projected them onto a wall using red, green and blue light - effectively, he took the first colour photographs ever, long before we knew how to develop colour film. Now the three slides have been digitally composited to create full-colour images.

What's really weird is to look back at these 100 year old images and realise that the world looked exactly the same then. No matter how much we try, when we try and visualise our grandparents youth or the turn of the 1900s, we always see it in black and white - or at least, drab colours. Seeing pictures from that era in bright, real colours is a very strange feeling - more than a bit spooky, it's like people from the past have just been brought to life again...

Dave

Woah... The digital artists really did a fine job on those. It's kinda surreal to think they were taken over 90 years ago. Ingenius idea from the photographer aswell.

Tazzle

that's just fuxxing cool, wp on finding em rob.

oeNeo

Be jaysus, they're excellent!

Mercury_Tilt

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sceptre

Excellent post - thanks Shinji

rymus

wow... the guy that did the work on those deserves some form of statue erected in his honour...

El Marco

Wow those pictures a amazing, hard to believe they were taken mearly 100 years ago. Looks like a really beutiful country; I wonder if it still retains it.

phobos

Nice one

You're right it is strange to look at photos like that (I mean from that era, in colour). Fair play to the photographer (genius). But I will admit, I still think the digital lads did a fair bit of work to get them looking as good as that.

Well done all around

;-phobos-)

Borzoi

I saw these a while ago when the exhibit was first posted and got talking to my brother, he's a fine art photographer who's recreated some of these old techniques. Apparently at the time there was a number of different ways of producing colour, but as they were all expensive and complicated, and certainly no use for mass production they fell by the wayside.

It still has to be said thatthis is one one the best collections around though. Fabulous photos and as an historical record.

amp

I say. Splendid. Next up, 100 year old video footage with people not running around like they're on acid.

Winters

thats pritty amazing.....he must ave really been a smart one. The digital lads seem to have done a hell of a lot of work on em... they make em even look "too" good... humm

deco

Quite literally awe-inspiring.......

I'm kind of reminded of the colour footage of World War 2....

Makes you review the way you looked at the past....

Jimi-Spandex

Thanks Shinji, that is absolutely surreal, im still finding it hard to grasp though, 100 years ago aye begorrah