Международный научный проект «Наследие С. М. Прокудина-Горского»

Dear forumers,

if you allow me, I would like to notify and consult with you the project I assigned myself for.
Background is that I have History seminar at the gymnasium I attend and we are supposed to make one project with presentation in the year. Since we are doing the era of Napoleonic wars to World War I, and nearing the end of century, I thought it would be perfect chance to enlighten the class (including the teacher..) about the magic of P-G colour photography. So, I asked and was given a permission to make commented presentation (since there is dataprojector with PC in the class) about Russian Empire on colour photos of Prokudin-Gorskii.

Therefore, I ask you if you have any tips what to include for sure, what would be priority. I will try to make it in Powerpoint (if it lags I might have to make separate presentations of the areas), unless there is something better? Any hints or advice will be more than welcome.

As of now I have a plan of dividing it in sections. This is my idea, which may be subject of change (depends on your opinions aswell):
First, shortest one will be photos, coat of arms etc. to accompany my speech about life of Sergey Michailovich.
Then I will, unless there are better ideas from you, start with the study on Skuritskhali river.
Continue with Second, tour of southern Russia and Caucasus,
Third Turkestan, Bukhara, Samarkand Oblast
Then probably the most awaited and expected Fourth part, Central Russia.
Fifth Urals and last Grand Principality of Finland and Murmansk railroad.

From the reproductions definitely L.N.Tolstoy, maybe one of the two Shalyapins aswell.

Looking forward for the replies,
with kindest regards,
Filip

Great idea! Are you going to share the presentation?

There are bits of Russian history on the PG's photos of other European countries as well. Vyacheslav recently commented here the Capri photo, that has the house where Gorki resided on the background. Another example: Denmark, a view from Villa Hvidøre in Klampenborg, the last residence of Maria Feodorovna.

Thank you Juri!

I will do my best to put either whole presentation or at least excerpts in this topic.

Yes I am aware of the photos from other european countries, but since the focus of the chapter of history seminar now is Russian Empire (around Crimean war-October revolution), I shall also primary focus on that and may only be able to put 1 or 2 of those kind as example of P-G journeys outside the empire.

For those interested in the progress:
-The presentation is done. Devoted saturday for it, definitely wasn't easy task. Chose around 120 colour negatives. Yes I know you can admit it's both too few and too much, but the main reason of the presentation is to bring attention to the topic. If I did either very few slides, well documented and commented, or too many to cover the most areas, the classmates would surely lose attention and interest.
-I've written down short curriculum vitae to accompany the start of the presentation, the "part one", where I included the brilliant photos (maps, coats of arms, etc.) from Vyacheslav's site, thank you very much. If you are interested in seeing the paper, I can copy it, however it is obviously in czech.
-I followed my schedule of geographical division as explained above. I can of course send you the presention, or better, upload it somewhere, since it grew as big as 120MB! Which was of course expectable considering the number of pictures, hopefully it will not cause a trouble.
Here are three shots from the beginning for you to have a look how I did or did not manage the presentation.

Nice work, Filip! Good luck!

Had the project presentation today!

It was welcomed dearly, the teacher was very pleasantly surprised, as she of course didn't know of P-G before. And got excelent mark.

Congratulations, Filip! I was sure that you have all of it!

As I mentioned in the other thread, last week I had a presentation in my class last week, in the occasion of the anniversary. I finally managed to somewhat fix my pre-revolutionary Russian in the first slide.

After the short biography I also of course mentioned the original intention of his work, which can be fullfiled now, in the age of internet. Then the presentation of photos itself. Unlike in normal lessons there was no talking or noise in the back of the class, all were fascinated by something that they would find impossible and deny the day before - early colour photography. Because of some obstructions in the start (professor needed to write short test before I start) and also because of many notes and side stories that are related to the photos, I ended just on start of the Ural albums. This paradoxically gave me space for more photos for the next lesson, because that was to be "just" Urals and the North (Grand duchy of Finland and Murmansk. zh.d.). All were stunned by the atmosphere of the long lost beauty. At the end I was even given an applause. I was welcomed by nice words and lots of questions when the lesson ended from the classmates.

Thank you Vassily and Vyacheslav for all your support and materials!