3-006-959 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Ekaterininsky spring, Borzhom, between 1905 and 1915. Elegantly dressed visitors posing for a photograph near the Ekaterinin, or Catherine's, Spring at a spa in Borzhom (or Borjomi), a small town in the Caucasus Mountains in the interior of what is now the Republic of Georgia. Noted for its mineral waters, it was a fashionable spa at the end of the nineteenth century. 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.