A New Way of Looking at Colour Photography

A few weeks ago, I found this amazing body of work by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, who took colour photographs of Russia around 1909-1912. How is that done? Have a look at the link:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html

I wondered if I could do it myself, and with infrared film. First time, fail. Next time better.