Comments | qwantz: every once in a while I link to this

qwantz

every once in a while I link to this

Jan 16, 2009 09:31

And this time because I discovered that Jenn and Katy hadn't seen it!

The Empire That Was Russia : colour photographs reconstructed from black and white originals (3 photos, taken with a red, green, and blue filter, respectively) taken by Prokudin-Gorskii before the invention of colour film ( Read more... )

Comments 33

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qwantz January 16 2009, 15:37:33 UTC

Interesting!

rebness January 16 2009, 14:45:01 UTC

THIS IS RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS. Thank you!

(This captcha reads: buy rolls - okay, I will!)

qwantz January 16 2009, 15:37:44 UTC

They can be most delicious

finkenstein January 16 2009, 15:02:50 UTC

Wow, those are just gorgeous!
It is amazing to me to see such vibrant colors from so long ago, it's as if people's brains are accustomed to seeing the past as a black and white place.

qwantz January 16 2009, 15:37:21 UTC

Yeah, I always get this weird vertigo when I see them and have to correct myself and think "things had colour back then too". I KNOW they did, I'm just not used to seeing it.

factitiouslj January 17 2009, 21:36:04 UTC

Well, things didn't quite have color back then. Like you said, it was just a semblance of color, imprecise and blurry.

It must have been interesting living through the transition out of olden times, seeing colors gradually snap into the crisp shades we know today.

watchreader January 16 2009, 18:18:47 UTC

I feel almost like these pictures were taken by a time traveler. I kept having to remind myself "these aren't re-enactments or museums."

kandigurl January 16 2009, 15:09:32 UTC

That is incredible! The pictures are so clear! I cannot wrap my head around the fact that they were taken almost a hundred years ago. I just can't.

I also love how in some of the pictures, you can see where people moved and even the movement of the clouds on account of the different color filters, this one is a good example, if you look in the background you see where people were standing in one picture but not in another!

qwantz January 16 2009, 15:38:24 UTC

Yeah, you get this chroma trail behind them. It blows my mind when I think this could be the only picture of some of these people; the only chance their face would be recorded, and they moved.

mushroom_maiden January 19 2009, 10:36:28 UTC

...wow.

say_it_with_pie January 16 2009, 15:13:27 UTC

Oh! This is also one of my favourite links, maybe I got it from you.

qwantz January 16 2009, 15:37:53 UTC

I will gladly claim the credit!

say_it_with_pie January 16 2009, 15:43:05 UTC

I have used the photos in art history tutorials!

qwantz January 16 2009, 15:58:31 UTC

In what context?

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