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DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-16 
ISSN 2767-472X 
©2021 Master Journals 

   
  Accepted 25th May, 2021 &  Published 31th May, 2021  

 

 
 

 

CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY                           
ISSN – 2767-472X 

66 

   https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH 

 

EXPRESSION OF THE HISTORY OF THE PEOPLES OF CENTRAL ASIA IN PHOTOS 
 

Jakhongir Gopurjonovich Inoyatov 

Doctoral student (PhD), Chirchik State Pedagogical Institute 

 

INTRODUCTION 

Shortly after the invention of the camera, its 
"miracle" became an important source in the 
study of Central Asian history. The photograph 
was first taken in this area in the mid-19th 
century by P.P. Used by an expedition led by 
Semenov. Many important and interesting 
historical information about the history of 
Central Asia can be found in the photos in the 
Turkestan album. The Turkestan album was 
compiled by order of the Governor-General of 
Turkestan and published in 1874 by Adjutant-
General K.P. von Kaufmann, and contains a very 
large collection of photographs. 

"Turkistan album" is an album of photos and 
color pictures. Prepared by the ethnographer, 
orientalist A.L.Kun (1840-88) on the instructions 
of the Governor-General of Turkestan KP 
Kaufman in 1871-72. The "Album of Turkestan" 
consists of 447 pages, 1262 photos and paintings. 
The book was divided into sections on 

handicrafts, archeology and history. Crafts of the 
mid-19th century in the "Turkistan Album"; 
types of economy, customs and rituals, 
anthropological types of Uzbeks, urban and rural 
life, landscapes of cities and valleys. The aim of 
most of the images is to portray the local people 
as savage and backward. "Turkistan album" is 
made in 7 copies. One copy is kept in the 
department of rare books of the National Library 

of Uzbekistan. 
1
 . 

METHODS 

The Turkestan album was the result of many 
years of work under the guidance of A.L. Kun, a 
Central Asian researcher. It features paintings of 
mountains, glaciers, and architectural 
monuments of major cities in the region. They 
include an ethnographic section that introduces 
locals to occupations, types of portraits, and 

                                                             
1 https://lcsr.hse.ru/news/44341947.html 

ABSTRACT  
 
In this article, the author aims to shed light on the evolution of scientific approaches in this field by studying 
the history of world photography. As well as the art of photography of the peoples of Central Asia and its 
importance in modern photography today. The main point of the article is to provide a comprehensive 
coverage of the formation of modern technologies by analyzing the scientific research in history through an 
in-depth study of the history of photography. 
 
 
KEYWORDS: - Evolution, scientific approaches, world photography, Central Asia, modern photography, 
evolution of scientific approaches, scientific research, modern technologies. 
 



CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(5): 66-70, May 2021      
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-16 
ISSN 2767-472X 
©2021 Master Journals 

   
  Accepted 25th May, 2021 &  Published 31th May, 2021  

 

 
 

 

CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY                           
ISSN – 2767-472X 

67 

   https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH 

genre scenes.
2
  

The Turkestan album was the result of many 
years of work under the guidance of A.L. Kun, a 
Central Asian researcher. It features paintings of 
mountains, glaciers, and architectural 
monuments of major cities in the region. They 
include an ethnographic section that introduces 
locals to occupations, types of portraits, and 

genre scenes.
3
  

It is no coincidence that today this glacier is 
called Barshchevsky. 

The first color photographs of Central Asia, ie 
Turkestan, were first taken by Russian 
photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky (1863-
1944). 

Sergei Prokudin also took color photos of the 
famous Amir Alimkhan. He came to Turkestan in 
1906-1907 and visited Samarkand, Bukhara, 
Tashkent and dozens of other towns and villages. 

Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky takes hundreds of 
photos about the landscapes of Turkestan, the 
life of its people. He wanted to create a photo-
gallery panorama to show how vast the 
territories and colorful nations the empire of 
Emperor Nicholas II was. 

In 1918, during the turbulent years of the 
revolution, Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky emigrated to 
France. His descendants will move to the United 
States. Unique photographs of our country, our 
homeland and our people are now housed in the 
Library of Congress. 

Leon (Lev) Semyonovich Barshchevsky was born 
in 1849 in Warsaw to a family of gentlemen. An 

                                                             
2 Туркестанский альбом. 1871-1872. В 4-х частях. По 

распоряжению Туркестанского Генерал-Губернатора К. П. Фон 

Кауфмана I-го. Точное воспроизведение издания: Спб. 1873 г. 16 

с. 
3 Липский В.И. Горная Бухара: Результаты трехлетних 

путешествий в Среднюю Азию в 1896, 1897 и 1899 годах. 4.1-3. 

СПб., 19021905. -4.1. - 318 е.; 4.2. - С.319-541.; Ч.З. - С.542-735. 

early orphan, the boy was raised by his older 
sister. Like many middle-class people, Leon 
chose the military profession, and in 1866, after 
graduating from the military gymnasium in Kiev, 
he entered the military school of Constantine. 
After graduation, Barshchevsky entered the 
infantry school in Odessa. When asked about the 
"Polish uprising" in history class, he defended the 
rebels, for which he was removed from the 
student list and transferred to the Kherson 
regional regiment with the title of hunker. There, 
Leon actively began to study language and crafts, 
and took photography lessons from watercolor 
artist and photographer Nikolai Osipov. After the 
annexation of Turkestan to Russia in 1876, 
Barshchevsky applied to move to Turkestan, one 
of the conditions for obtaining the highest 
military ranks in the Russian Empire. Leon 
Barshchevsky was sent to Central Asia in 1889. 

Leon Barshchevsky, a Polish traveler who tried 
to study the history of Central Asia in depth, 
traveled long distances throughout Central Asia, 
and VI Lipsky, who came to Central Asia in 1898 
to study the Pamir glaciers, also made important 
photographs on the history of the region. This 
expedition of scientists was able to take many 
photographs of historical significance throughout 
Central Asia. For example, photographs taken on 
the glacier on the southern slope of the Gissar 
ridge are of great importance in the study of 
Central Asian history. These are the first 
photographs taken in Central Asia. 

The whole Central Asian period of his life was 
connected with Samarkand and Penjikent, and in 
1896 he graduated from the Turkestan service 
with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Leon 
Barshchevsky studied the life and customs of the 
local people in the Zarafshan valley and 
photographed their lives. His photographs are a 
unique document of the history of that period 
and Central Asia. Through the organization of 
scientific expeditions, Barshchevsky traveled 
along the rivers Zarafshan, Fandarya, 



CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(5): 66-70, May 2021      
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-16 
ISSN 2767-472X 
©2021 Master Journals 

   
  Accepted 25th May, 2021 &  Published 31th May, 2021  

 

 
 

 

CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY                           
ISSN – 2767-472X 

68 

   https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH 

Iskanderdarya and Yagnob, through which he 
went to the Gissar ridge and the Emirate of 

Bukhara.
4
  

Methodological research: We know from 
history that the life, culture, nature, climate, way 
of life and traditions of the peoples of Central 
Asia are expressed through unique photographs, 
as well as the plight of the people of this country 
during the former empire. In 1905, on behalf of 
Emperor Nicholas II, Prokudin-Gorsky embarked 
on his first creative tour of Russia, during which 
time he created about 400 photographs of the 
Caucasus, Crimea and Lesser Russia. His 
photographs were very popular at the time. 
Because he does not use black-and-white 
photographs, but color photographs during his 
travels. Prokudin-Gorsky achieves such creative 
success through the method of stacking 
negatives on top of each other. This innovative 
approach makes the Russian tourist one of the 
pioneers of color photography. 

In May 1908 his second voyage began. The 
photographer travels to the North Caucasus - but 
from time to time he returns to Moscow and St. 
Petersburg to cover the life of the Romanov 
family through photographs. In the same year, 
Prokudin-Gorky created several colorful 
portraits of Leo Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana. This 
is the author’s first and only color photo. 

Prokudin solemnly photographed a photograph 
of Bukhara's Amir Alimkhan (1880–1944) 
shortly after he came to power in 1911. This 
digital color image is stored in the Printing and 
Photography Division of the Library of Congress, 

LC-DIG-ppmsc-03959 (5)
5
 . 

As the ruler of the autonomous city-state in 
Muslim Central Asia, he ruled the internal affairs 
of the Emirate as an absolute monarch from the 

                                                             
4 Императорский фарфоровый завод 1744-1904. СПб., издание 

управления Императорскими заводами, 1906.. 460 с. 
5 https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ethnic-ru.html 

middle of the 19th century, despite the fact that 
Bukhara was a vassal state of the Russian 
Empire. After the establishment of Soviet power 
in Bukhara in 1920, the emir fled to Afghanistan. 
Perhaps his most famous photograph taken in 
Central Asia is a portrait of Muhammad 
Alimkhan, the last emir of Bukhara, who appears 
to have been photographed during the filming of 
this historic drama. Like Prokudin-Gorsky, the 
emir fled the Bolsheviks and left his country. 
Both died in 1944, a photographer in Paris and 
an emir in Kabul. 

 

RESULTS 

 

From 1905 to 1915, the photographer made 
several expeditions to Central Asia in the Russian 
Empire. At that time it included Osh, Samarkand, 
Tashkent, Kokand, Andijan and other large cities 
and regions. All surviving photographs of 
Prokudin are kept in the Library of Congress. The 
photographer's collection also includes 
photographs taken in dozens of cities in the 
former Russian Empire. For example, he works 
on a color photo of a silk and cotton seller in 
Samarkand. This photo depicts a page of the 
Qur'an sitting on a multi-layered fabric and 
hanging from the ceiling in a unique style. 
Prokudin also photographed a melon seller and 
the Syrdarya Bridge in the Fergana Valley. He 
photographed a caravan of camels carrying food 
through the steppes of Central Asia, as well as 
the Soviet-era cities of Yangier and Gulistan. 

Many peoples of Central Asia, such as the Kyrgyz, 
Kazakhs, and Uzbeks, led nomadic lifestyles in 
the steppes, valleys, and deserts, and moved 
from place to place as the seasons changed as 
food, water, and shelter opportunities changed. 
This photo, taken by Prokudin, shows a young 
family dressed in colorful traditional costumes 
moving across the steppe in modern-day 



CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(5): 66-70, May 2021      
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-16 
ISSN 2767-472X 
©2021 Master Journals 

   
  Accepted 25th May, 2021 &  Published 31th May, 2021  

 

 
 

 

CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY                           
ISSN – 2767-472X 

69 

   https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH 

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. This digital color 
image is stored in the Printing and Photography 
Division of the Library of Congress, LC-DIG-
ppmsc-03979 (6) . 

Samarkand, the ancient commercial, intellectual, 
and spiritual center of the Silk Road from Europe 
to China, was inhabited by Tajiks, Persians, 
Uzbeks, Arabs, Jews, and Russians. Another 
photo taken by Prokudin shows a group of 
traditionally dressed Jewish boys studying with 
their teacher. This digital color image is stored in 
the Printing and Photography Division of the 
Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsc-04442 (7).  

Prokudin-Gorsky's portrait of an Uzbek woman 
also features a traditional Uzbek woman's dress, 
jewelry, and hairstyle on a carpet at the entrance 
to the house, or a mobile tent used by Central 
Asian nomadic peoples to build houses. After the 
conquest of Turkestan in the mid-19th century, 
the Russian government put severe pressure on 
the nomadic peoples, encouraging them to adopt 
a sedentary lifestyle and live permanently in 
villages and cities. 

CONCLUSION 

In late 1906, during Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky's 
first trip to Central Asia, he accompanied the 
expedition of the Russian Geographical Society to 
observe a solar eclipse in the Tien Shan 
Mountains on January 1, 1907, 111 years ago. 
Because the day was cloudy for astronomy, the 
photographer took the opportunity to 
photograph nearby Samarkand, its architecture 
and its people. As a professional chemist, 
Prokudin-Gorky developed one of the first 
methods of color reproduction by combining 
three glass white and black negative plates shot 
through different color filters: red, green, and 
blue. In some paintings, the colors are 
surprisingly realistic. 

So Prokudin-Gorsky’s exotic “others” photos are 
still popular today. For example, we see the skill 

of taking pictures of men wearing turbans selling 
fresh bread on the street or near a mosque. It is 
also worth noting that the photos of women in 
very long-sleeved coats were made in a unique 
photo style, so as not to freeze their hands. He 
also described the details of the monumental 
ancient architecture in a unique style. Today, 
these buildings are recognized as the most 
important Islamic architectural structures in the 
world. The Prokudin-Gorsky archives are housed 
in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., 
and many of the photographs taken by the 
photographer and his notebooks are also 
available online. There are many more Central 
Asian paintings by Prokudin-Gorsky. That is why 
we consider it important for the younger 
generation to get acquainted with the works of 
such photographers in order to give them a good 
idea of their ancestors. 

 

REFERENCES 

 

1. https://lcsr.hse.ru/news/44341947.html  

2. Туркестанский альбом. 1871-1872. В 4-
х частях. По распоряжению 
Туркестанского Генерал-Губернатора 
К. П. Фон Кауфмана I-го. Точное 
воспроизведение издания: Спб. 1873 г. 
16 с. 

3. Липский В.И. Горная Бухара: 
Результаты трехлетних путешествий в 
Среднюю Азию в 1896, 1897 и 1899 
годах. 4.1-3. СПб., 19021905. -4.1. - 318 
е.; 4.2. - С.319-541.; Ч.З. - С.542-735. 

4. Императорский фарфоровый завод 
1744-1904. СПб., издание управления 
Императорскими заводами, 1906.. 460 
с. 

5. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/et



CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY 2(5): 66-70, May 2021      
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37547/history-crjh-02-05-16 
ISSN 2767-472X 
©2021 Master Journals 

   
  Accepted 25th May, 2021 &  Published 31th May, 2021  

 

 
 

 

CURRENT RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HISTORY                           
ISSN – 2767-472X 

70 

   https://masterjournals.com/index.php/CRJH 

hnic-ru.html  

6. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/et
hnic-ru.html 

7. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/et
hnic-ru.html  

8. Rasuljanovna, I. N., & Rakhmonqulovich, 
K. N. (2020). Trade Relations Between 
Ancient Bacteria And China On The II-I 
BC. The American Journal of Social 
Science and Education Innovations, 
2(07), 47-51. 


