3-007-001 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Niche in back wall of Shakh-i Zindeh [mosque], Samarkand, between 1905 and 1915. The Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble includes mausoleums and other ritual buildings of 11th-15th and 19th centuries. 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.