Original Separations - Restorations

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As mentioned on the main PERMANENCE page, the photographs you see here are full-color, taken on black-and-white glass plates between 1905 to 1912 by the Russian photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky. The restorations you see below are from scans of the separations, downloaded from the Library of Congress.  They are in pairs; the LOC proof is on the left (first), and my restoration is on the right (second).

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Two things became clear to me while restoring his work.  One,  Gorskii had advanced sensibilities of color - an unknown skill in photographers at the time, since black-and-white was dominant.  Two, in coordination with those sensibilities, he shot for the light, not just for the subject. 

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Prokudin-Gorskii made a promise to Czar Nikolai that his images of Imperial Russia would last forever.  I hope that my restorations will help to fulfill Prokudin-Gorskii's promise.

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