# Color pictures of Russia, 1909-1912 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 25, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-russia-1909-1912/551435 "2010-08-25T19:12:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-russia-1909-1912/551435/21 "2010-08-27T12:36:31Z")
I only briefly glanced at these (I’ll check 'em out on a modern computer when I get home) but how on Earth do pictures from that long ago look so sharp? Have they been enhanced? ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-russia-1909-1912/551435/22 "2010-08-27T14:42:19Z")
Read the info at the Library Of Congress link. It’s quite involved and calling them ‘enhanced’ is almost insulting, considering the technique that was used 100 years ago, the custom camera the photographer created, the technique he more-or-less created and the projector he used back in the day to show them in color… and how the modern digitization keeps with the spirit of what the photographer intended. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-russia-1909-1912/551435/23 "2010-08-27T16:16:18Z")
I find it interesting that nearly every person has some kind of headwear. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-russia-1909-1912/551435/24 "2010-08-27T18:31:54Z")
Most, if not all of these photos appear in the 1980 book, “Photographs for the Tsar”. I remember purchasing several as gifts but sadly, I did not get a copy for myself. If you are interested, the [book](http://www.amazon.com/Photographs-Tsar-Mikhailovich-Prokudin-Gorskii-Commissioned/dp/0385271581/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282933677&sr=8-1) can still be had from the Amazon used market. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-russia-1909-1912/551435/25 "2010-08-27T21:17:19Z")
The first reviewer on that Amazon page eloquently makes the same point raised in this thread too: > [@](#): > > Today, they are painful reminders of a world that has been smashed forever. The peasants would die in the Great War, or starve in the postwar famines, or butcher each other in the Civil War, or be executed in the Red Terror. The public works would go to ruin due to the incompetence of the commissars who would run them after the bourgeois engineers had been eliminated. The colorful tribespeople would be exiled. The churches would be looted and demolished. The peaceful meadows would be paved over by ill-conceived, gigantic heavy industrial plants. The villages would be burned by civil war and foreign invasions. Seeing all these images which look like they were taken yesterday, and knowing the fate that awaited their subjects, is quite an experience. One of the best things about the Internet is how it keeps alive bits of history and culture that have been long forgotten and this is a great example. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/color-pictures-of-russia-1909-1912/551435.md?page=1)