i meant to post this a while ago, but check out these photos of the pre-revolutionary russian empire (click on the links below the "exhibition selections" heading. i particularly like the "ethnic diversity" and "architecture" sets).
it's really amazing to see color photos that are almost 100 years old. the photographer, sergei mikhailovich prokudin-gorskii, traveled all over the russian empire. so it is particularly interesting for me to see photos of places i have been from long long ago. for example, check out prokudin-gorskii's photo of shah-i-zinda in samarkand. it's pretty different from the excavated and restored complex i visited in 2003.
(via dr. pretentious)
