i love these photographs, not least because of their gorgeousness, but also because they document (in a v real “photographic” way) the ethnic and cultural syncretism which defines the human race. it’s the overlap and magnificent blending of different beliefs and traditions which have built and transformed human civilization over thousands of years. check it out.
…
Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky (1863–1944) became photographically renowned in Russia for a color portrait of Leo Tolstoy. It was this fame that, in 1909, brought him to the attention of Tsar Nicholas II. Prokudin-Gorsky’s subsequent meeting with the tsar and the tsar’s family was to be the pivotal moment in his life: The tsar provided both the funding and the authority for Prokudin-Gorsky to carry out what he would later describe as his life’s work. For most of the following decade, using a specially adapted railroad car as a darkroom, Prokudin-Gorsky traversed the length and breadth of the Russian Empire, recording what he saw in more than 10,000 full-color photographs. More here.