On the Skuritskhali River: Study, Orto-Batum village, between 1905 and 1915. Russian chemist and photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky in suit and hat, seated on a rock beside a river, with mountains in the background, Batumi, Georgia. 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.