Photographer to the Tzar

Winter is coming to an end and spring is in the air in the Midwest - or it should be. It sounds as if winter is reluctant to release its hold this year, since it is late April and I have been receiving pictures of my father's snow filled yard in my inbox. However, snow or no snow, spring break must go on and Lynn recently return from her 'spring' break pilgrimage to the Twin Cities just as she did last year.

While she visiting her parents a year ago, Lynn's mom shared a program with her on the work of Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, the photographer to the Tzar who began producing color photographs in 1906. When you look at his images it seems impossible they are real. They feel staged, because we are so used to seeing that period in black and white. Lynn found inspiration in the photos he took while on the silk road and this postcard is from a picture titled, Fabric Merchant. When I look at the photo now, I again wish I could travel to Russia to see how it has developed in the last 100 years and to have a better understanding of the street view that this merchant may have been looking out on to that day. Thank you for the inspiration a year later my pal.