hidden europe 10

The last picture show

by hidden europe

Summary

hidden europe celebrates the life and work of a pioneering Russian photographer.

In a modest sort of way, we like to think that in hidden europe we are documenting some of our continent's unsung corners. Many have engaged in such endeavours before us, as, from pilgrimages to post-colonial explorations, travellers have sketched out their impressions of the peoples and places they encountered along the way. One man we rather admire for his sharp eye and technical prowess in documenting landscape and culture is a little known Russian traveller and photographer.

One hundred years ago, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky put to the tsar a proposal to create a photographic inventory of the empire that was Russia.

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A Polish port: Frombork

In Frombork, a tiny port on Poland's Baltic coast, the ferry terminal has closed down for the winter. A lone fisherman sits at the end of the pier and looks out over the lagoon to Russia. But the town where Nicolaus Copernicus lived and worked turns out to have a rare off-season appeal.

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From Prussia to Russia: Kaliningrad

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Baltic port of Kaliningrad found itself strangely isolated from the rest of Russia. Hemmed in by the European Union, the city of Kaliningrad is rethinking its role in the modern world. It is a remarkable city in a remarkable region.