Category — Photos & Visual Arts

These photos from 100 years ago are really amazing, first for being in color, but especially at such high resolution. It’s probably the closest thing to time travel that we can get. It’s like a time capsule back to the last days of Imperial/Tsarist Russia before the Revolution of 1917.

With images from southern and central Russia in the news lately due to extensive wildfires, I thought it would be interesting to look back in time with this extraordinary collection of color photographs taken between 1909 and 1912. In those years, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images. The high quality of the images, combined with the bright colors, make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time – when these photographs were taken, neither the Russian Revolution nor World War I had yet begun. Collected here are a few of the hundreds of color images made available by the Library of Congress, which purchased the original glass plates back in 1948.

— Alekséi Savrásov, 1871

This was my first time on the Oregon coast and it was so beautiful. We left Seattle on friday morning to the Tillamook area, driving on the Pacific Coast Highway 101. It overlooks Oregon coast’s most spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean. We stayed in a Bed & breakfast in Pacific City. Private cottage fully equipped with fireplace, Jacuzzi, wifi and an amazing 4 courses breakfast each morning. We didn’t see much sun but the clouds and fog created an incredible atmosphere, almost creepy. The perfect place for horror movies. I loved it and wish we could have staid longer as I will probably not see this place again before I move to Canada. The Oregon coast is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever visited in my life. No words could explain this experience. You can look at the photos here.

My friends and I went to Deception Pass for the day last saturday. It’s a State Park located an hour and half from Seattle. The bridge separates Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island. Even with a partly cloudy weather, it was absolutely gorgeous. There are hikes all around the park with beautiful scenery and beaches, including several secluded areas where we picnic’d with some French food and good wines. We even caught a nice sunset over the open water. That was grand. I can’t believe how many natural gems the Pacific Northwest has. It’s one of those places I can easily imagine myself spending my life in (hello Vancouver, BC). Hopefully there are as many -easily accessible- beauties in Quebec as there are here in Washington. Next stops, Cape Lookout and Cape Meares in Oregon next weekend.

The comments of each photo form the monologue that appears at the beginning of the Dead Flag Blues masterpiece by Godspeed You! Black Emperor from the album F#A#oo. It comes from an unfinished film that Efrim, lead of GY!BE, wrote and has been working on for a while. I tried to create a photo journal made of the images that pop into my mind every time I listen to this piece. It’s one of the most cinematic piece of music I’ve ever listened to and one of the finest post-rock tracks ever recorded. The voice over work is magnificent, and the latter half using ambient noises is brilliant. I also love the incredibly dark tone, it evokes the image of a country falling into ruin, an urban agony. Bleak, dark and beautiful, this song haunts my images of our future, yet inspires me to aspire for change in the world. You can listen and download the track here. It’s great.

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 17

The car’s on fire and there’s no driver at the wheel,