The Lost Empire - Photographer to the TSAR
Monday, May 5th, 2008 through Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
In the early 1900s Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii developed an ambitious plan to complete a photographic survey of the Russian Empire that won the support of Tsar Nicholas II. Between 1909-1912, and again in 1915, he completed photographic surveys of eleven regions. With permits from the Tsar, Prokudin-Gorskii was granted access to several restricted areas within Russia and enjoyed the support and cooperation of the empire's bureaucracy. He traveled the country in a specially equipped railroad car that was provided by the Ministry of Transportation.
By 1918 the Tsar and his family had been murdered, and the empire that had been carefully documented in the photos of Prokudin-Gorskii had been destroyed. His unique images of Russia on the eve of revolution recorded on glass plates were scanned and, through an innovative process known as digichromatography, a series of amazing color images have been produced. This exhibition features a sampling of Prokudin-Gorskii's historic images that are available to the public for the first time.