The Outer Bridge
Scott Brock
Original Separations - Restorations
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).
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.
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.