Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire from 1903 to 1915. Using a specialized three-lens camera and color separation process, he took some of the earliest color photographs, capturing images ahead of their time that showed daily life across the vast empire. The high quality of Prokudin-Gorskii's photographs make it difficult to believe they were taken over 100 years ago, providing a unique snapshot of the people and places within the Russian Empire during this period.

1. Photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii
(1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the
Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He
used a specialized camera to capture three black and
white images in fairly quick succession and then using
red, green and blue filters recombined the images to
produce color photos that were ahead of there time. The
high quality of Gorskii’s pics make it difficult for viewers
to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time
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2. The Russian Empire was a state that existed from
1721 until the Russian Revolution in 1917. It was
the second largest contiguous empire in world
history, surpassed only by the Mongol Empire, the
third largest empire the British Empire. At one
point in 1866, it stretched from eastern Europe,
across Asia, and into North America. By the end of
the 19th century the size of the empire was about
(8,600,000 sq mi) or almost 1/6 of the Earth's
landmass.

3. Self-portrait, Prokudin-Gorskii seated on rock beside the Karolitskhali River
in the Caucasus Mountains near the eastern coast of the Black Sea 1915

4. An Armenian woman poses for Prokudin-Gorskii on a
hillside near Artvin (in present day Turkey) 1910

5. Volga-Baltic Waterway, Russia 1909

6. Washing brown iron ore at the Shilovskii near the village of Makarovo, Russia 1909

7. Mills in Ialutorovsk district of Tobolsk Province Siberia, Russia 1910

8. A woman is seated on the Sim River, part of the Volga watershed in 1910

9. A switch operator poses on the Trans-Siberian Railroad near the town of Ust Katav, Russia 1910

10. Gates at the Cathedral of the Transfiguration in the city of Tver, Russia 1910

11. Hut in the forest for woodcutters, Ural mountain region, Russia 1908

12. Turkmen man posing with camel loaded with sacks,
probably of grain or cotton, Central Asia 1907

13. General view of Artvin (now in Turkey) from the small town of Svet, 1910

14. Prokudin-Gorskii (right front) rides along on a handcar outside
Petrozavodsk on the Murmansk railway along Lake Onega in 1910

15. Trinity Cathedral in the city of Ialutorovsk, Siberia, Russia 1910

16. View of the Solovetskii monastery Solovetski, Russia 1912

17. Prokudin-Gorskii at a night camp on the bank of the Chusovaia River, Russia 1912

18. Isfandiyar Jurji Bahadur, Khan of the Russian protectorate of
Khorezm (Khiva, now a part of modern Uzbekistan) 1910

19. Zoom

20. Trans-Siberian Railway crossing the Kama River near Perm, Ural Mountains Region, Russia 1910.

21. Church of the Exaltation of the Cross. Ostashkov, Russia 1908

22. Finland was part of the Russian
Empire until 1917
Near the small town of Iustilia, Finland on the Saimaa Canal 1907

23. View of Suzdal along the Kamenka River, Russia 1910

24. Emir Seyyid Mir Mohammed Alim Khan, the Emir of Bukhara (present-day Uzbekistan) 1910

25. A group of Jewish children with a teacher in Samarkand, (in modern Uzbekistan) 1910

26. A group of women in Dagestan, Russia 1910

27. Peasants harvesting hay along the Mariinskii Canal, Russian Empire 1909

28. Site of a rescue station, Onega Lake, Russian Empire 1909

29. Shroud with image of the the Venerable Evfrosiniia,
Evfrosiniia Monastery, Suzdal, Russia 1910

30. A man and woman pose in Dagestan, Russia 1910

31. A water-carrier in Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan) 1910

32. Nikolaevskii Cathedral in the city of Mozhaisk, Russia 1911

33. Kyn, Russia 1912

34. Dalmatov Monastery, Siberia Russia 1909

35. A chapel sits on the site where the city of Belozersk was
founded in ancient times, photographed in 1909

36. Sart woman in purdah in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, 1910

37. A boy sits in the court of Tillia-Kari mosque in Samarkand, present-day Uzbekistan 1910

38. Spinning yarn in the village of Izvedovo, Russia 1907

39. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prokudin-Gorskii