Russia’s pioneering pre-revolution photographer has a high-fashion revival
Image: Andrey Kovalev
Image: Andrey Kovalev
Image: Andrey Kovalev
Image: Andrey Kovalev
Image: Andrey Kovalev
Image: Andrey Kovalev
10 August 2018
Text
Katie Marie Davies
As the world teetered on the brink of war and revolution, photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky travelled the length of the Russian Empire to pioneer a radical new invention: colour photography.
His images, created in their hundreds between 1905 and 1915 inspired generations of photographers to follow in his footsteps. Now Russian fashion brand Infundibulum is putting a new twist on his iconic work.
Shot in the Russian town of Rostov Velikiy, the SS19 collection was photographed in the same way as Prokudin-Gorsky produced his portraits: by taking black and white images through green, red and blue filters.
The brand, which also used vintage Soviet fabrics, said they wanted to showcase “the inevitability and beauty of the evolution of tradition”.
“The pictures show signs of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the post-Soviet period,” they said.