I'm amazed at the fidelity of the photos. These are better than most color photos half their age. This was a couple of decades before the first color films, so each color had to be photographed separately through a filter. So the subjects had to sit still even longer than for normal BW.
Sometimes older photos hold up better. Color photography went through a very bad period in the 1970's. Wedding photos, graduation photos etc. started to fade and discolor after a few years.
ReplyDeleteThis led to the concept of archival photographic materials. The groundbreaking book on the subject was, "The Permanence and Care of Color Photographs," by Henry Wilhelm.
http://www.wilhelm-research.com/book_toc.html
About 100 years ago Russia was on its way to big success in the modern world but the Bolshevik Revolution ran that train off the tracks.
ReplyDeleteA very, very sad chapter in Russia's history from which it may never recover.
These photos remind us of the potential Russia had for becoming a great nation in the modern world.
Thank you for posting.
Thanks for posting it Eolake, I really found it all very interesting. I wonder though in those days how and on what material he was able to create a print. It's not like Kodak had produced it's Photo Paper yet.
ReplyDeleteI understand how the image would be projected, like on a slide, but to print in color. Very fascinating, indeed.
The brillance of the colors is amazing also.
I don't think they could be printed in color, only projected, using three carefully aligned projectors.
ReplyDeleteIt is mentioned in several places in the article that the images were also printed. It is in fact a printed postcard that attracted the attention of the Tsar in the first place.
ReplyDeleteAlthough no mention is made of the printing process(es) used, it probably was some variant of a "regular" printing process of the time, each color processed one at a time.