3-006-951 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Distributing of water, Borzhom (Borjomi, Georgia), between 1905 and 1915. Men pushing carts laden with bottles while others stand and watch; to the side are bundles of bottles packed in plant fibre. Russian chemist and photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky (1863-1944) was a pioneer in colour photography which he used to document early 20th-century Russia and her empire, including the vanishing way of life of tribal peoples along the Silk Route in Central Asia. In a railway-carriage darkroom provided by Czar Nicholas II, Prokudin-Gorsky used the three-colour photography process to record traditional costumes and occupations, churches and mosques - many now Unesco World Heritage sites - as well as modernisation in agriculture, industry and transport.