A month after the liberation of Paris, Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky died at the age of 81. His flat contained glass plates and a dozen books of contact prints which preserved, in colour, a remarkable portrait of the Russian Empire on the eve of the Russian Revolution, and the legacy of a forgotten father of modern colour photography.

Commissioned by the Tsar to document his vast realm on film, Gorsky's archive presents frozen moments in time of an Empire on the verge of destruction. Here, in vivid colour are ethnic tribesmen, farm workers, steam engines, tea pickers, enormous churches, first world war POW's and images of the photographer himself.

Historian and author Orlando Figes explores Gorsky's life and presents a striking visual portrait, both of Russia on the eve of revolution and St Petersburg today.

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