3-006-973 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Tank barge of the Nobel brothers [Russian Empire], 1909. Vessel named Evgenia, with the own of Vytegra in background. The Petroleum Production Company Nobel Brothers Limited, or Branobel, was an oil company which became, during the late 19th century, one of the largest oil companies in the world. 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.