Color Photography

Color photography is a lot older than we realize. I learned of this several years ago. I already knew that photography itself is older than we realize, and was more advanced earlier than we think of it as. But the past of color photography is so so insane. I was looking at this again recently. I really can't believe it.

This is a photograph from 1911:

Literally.

It literally looks like it was taken yesterday. It's so clear and beautiful and perfect. It is literally as nice as photos today. I will never ever understand or fully believe how it is possible for this picture to be that old.

The picture is a photograph of the Nikolaevskii Cathedral in the Russian countryside, taken in 1911. That's before World War I. It was taken by the photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, who was sent on a photographic tour of the Russian Empire by Tsar Nicholas II. Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii developed a new technique of color photography, and the results were absolutely amazing. The picture of the castle is only one of many many unbelievable photographs he took.

Here are some other pictures he took:

From 1910

1910

1909

1911

1910

1910

1912

1910

c. 1905-1915

1910

1911

1904


There are so many more amazing pictures of his. It's so unbelievable how old they are.

Here are several collections of his photographs:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:foXTnOk7s5gJ:www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

http://twistedsifter.com/2015/04/rare-color-photos-of-the-russian-empire-from-100-years-ago/

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

There are also other old pictures that are really hard to believe. This is a good collection of these kind of photographs:

http://www.cracked.com/pictofacts-406-19-photos-youd-swear-were-taken-by-time-travelers/

My favorites in this collection are #19, #18, #15, #14, #13, #9, and #7.

Learning about this and seeing these pictures really changed my perspective of everything. Haha it's so crazy and unbelievable.