Who is Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky? Google Doodle celebrates Russian colour photography pioneer
The chemist and photographer is celebrated for his landmark work in colour photography and travelling extensively across his home country of Russia.
SERGEY Prokudin-Gorsky has been celebrated with a Google doodle today.
Here’s what we know the 19th-century photography pioneer.
Who was Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky?
Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky was honoured by Google today on what would have been his 155th birthday.
The chemist and photographer is celebrated for his landmark work in colour photography and travelling extensively across his home country of Russia.
Prokudin-Gorsky pioneered the use of colour separation method, to develop three-image colour photography to create photos in quality colour.
He was born on August 30, 1863, in Funikova Gora, the former district of Kirzhachsky, Vladimir Oblast.
His family were Russian nobles and Prokudin-Gorsky came from a long line of military figures.
They later moved to Saint Petersburg where the young Sergey completed his studies.
He studied chemistry at Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology along with music and painting at the Imperial Academy of Arts.
He married his wife Anna in 1890, before they went on to have three children together.
What is he famous for?
Prokudin-Gorsky’s revolutionary work in colour sensitisation began in 1902 after he studied under the tutalage of photochemist Adolf Miethe in Berlin, one of the early pioneers of colour photography.
He returned to Russia and began developing his own techniques and soon after he began touring the nation.
He documented Russian society, architecture and the nations people, with his photos earning him international acclaim.
Sergey honed his techniques in a mobile darkroom on a railroad car, given to him by Tsar Nicholas II who he had earlier impressed with his images.
His most notable achievement was the portrait of Russian author Leo Tolstoy.
The colour snap of the War and Peace author was reproduced countless times in prints and postcards.
Prokudin-Gorsky became the elected president of the Imperial Russian Technical Society in 1906.
MOST READ IN WORLD NEWS
He was also a member of the Royal Photographic Society between 1920 and 1932.
Prokudin-Gorsky died on September 27, 1944 in Paris, just one month after the liberation of Paris.
His body of work is today preserved by the US Library of Congress and thousands of his negatives were digitised in 2000.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.