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Elderly Sart Man (Babaika, Samarkand)

1905
This evocative winter view shows an elderly Babaika (Sart man) with a silver beard and white turban, framed by trees lined with fresh snow. The man is holding a brace of birds for a meal. The bright sunlight creates a shadow pattern throughout the photograph. In the left background is a shed wall made of mud applied to wattle latticework. (A roll of wattle is in the center.) The term “Sart” has various meanings and was used at the time to refer to town dwellers, as well as to people who inhabited this area before the coming of Uzbek tribes in the 16th century. The image is by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944), who used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire. He was interested in recently acquired territories of the Russian Empire such as Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring states), which he visited on a number of occasions, including a trip in January 1907 and two trips in 1911. Turkestan appealed to him not only for its Islamic architecture but also for scenes of local life in places such as Samarkand.

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Filename
5797.jpg
Copyright
acku Afghanistan
Image Size
1800x1689 / 598.7KB
Contained in galleries
UZBEKISTAN
1905<br />
This evocative winter view shows an elderly Babaika (Sart man) with a silver beard and white turban, framed by trees lined with fresh snow. The man is holding a brace of birds for a meal. The bright sunlight creates a shadow pattern throughout the photograph. In the left background is a shed wall made of mud applied to wattle latticework. (A roll of wattle is in the center.) The term “Sart” has various meanings and was used at the time to refer to town dwellers, as well as to people who inhabited this area before the coming of Uzbek tribes in the 16th century. The image is by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944), who used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire. He was interested in recently acquired territories of the Russian Empire such as Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring states), which he visited on a number of occasions, including a trip in January 1907 and two trips in 1911. Turkestan appealed to him not only for its Islamic architecture but also for scenes of local life in places such as Samarkand.