30 August 1863 year
Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky was born in the Vladimir Governorate. He was an inventor, photographer, and creator of the "Collection of Landmarks of the Russian Empire"—one of the world's first collections of color photographs, taken between 1903 and 1916.
With the advent of the Revolution in Russia, there was a real risk of losing the entire collection, and it remained in this danger for several years. However, thanks to a fortunate combination of circumstances, I was able to obtain permission to export the most interesting portion.
Studied at Petersburg — first at the lyceum, then at the physics and mathematics department at the university, attended a course of lectures at the Military Medical Academy, studied painting at the Academy of Arts.
In the late 1890s, he became interested in photography. In 1902, he went to Germany to study at a photomechanical school. Adolf Miethe, a pioneer of color photography. He soon announced the creation of color slides using Miethe's three-color photography method. In 1905, he patented a sensitizer superior to his teacher's. Its composition made the silver bromide plate equally sensitive to the entire color spectrum.
Since 1903, he began photographing the country in color—landscapes, people, and art objects. He captured Leo Tolstoy и Feodor Chaliapin. His photographs were later used to restore the lost colours of exhibits in the Hermitage.
In 1909 he had an audience with the Emperor. Nicholas II gave him the go-ahead to visually document various aspects of life in the Russian territory. The photographer had a dedicated railway car with a laboratory at his disposal, as well as a small steamship, a motorboat, and a car. And he had papers granting access to any part of the empire. However, the photographer financed all the photography himself.
In the evening, the photographs had to be developed in the laboratory of the carriage, and sometimes the work dragged on until late at night, especially if the weather was unfavorable and it was necessary to find out whether it would be necessary to repeat the shooting in different lighting before leaving for the next designated destination.
After the Revolution, Prokudin-Gorsky lived in France. He worked with the Lumière brothers. He died in 1944.