The Autochrome: A Revolutionary but Brief Moment in Photography History
The Autochrome was a groundbreaking photographic process that revolutionized the industry in the early 20th century. Developed by the Société Lumière in 1907, the Autochrome was the first industrial color photography process available to the public. American photographer Edward Steichen even described it as the “most beautiful process that photography has ever given us to translate nature.” This new process quickly gained popularity and created a craze for color photography. Continue reading »
Tatiana at the Beach: Early Color Autochrome Photography by Ernest-Louis Lessieux
The Autochrome was a pioneering color photography process invented by the Lumière brothers in France. First patented in 1903 and marketed in 1907, the process revolutionized photography by enabling the creation of color images for the first time. In 1907, the same year the process was introduced, photographs were taken using Autochrome. Continue reading »
Stunning Autochrome Portraits of Women Taken by Alfonse Van Besten From the Early 20th Century
Alfonse Van Besten (1865–1926) was a painter and took full advantage of the possibilities of the new color process. One can see that many of his autochromes were taken with a “painterly eye” e.g. Musing (Mrs.Van Besten) and Symphony in white. It was evident that he had a very good sense of composition. Continue reading »
Antonin Personnaz’s Autochrome Dreams Of Early 20th Century France
Between 1907 and 1914, art collector Antonin Personnaz (1854 – 31 December 1936) took autochrome pictures of France’s Oise Valley. His dreamy, impressionist-style photographs call to mind the work of the artists he knew, like Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Albert Lebourg and Jean-François Raffaelli, Camille Pissarro and Paul Gachet. Continue reading »
Outstanding Color Autochromes from Pre-Revolutionary Russia
These outstanding autochrome pictures of pre-Revolutionary Russia were taken by Peter Ivanovich Vedenisov (1866-1937), a graduate from the Moscow conservatory. He settled in to Yalta, working as a professional pianist, vice-chairman of the Yalta branch of the Russian musical society, founder of the Yalta religious-philosophical society and an avid meteorologist. But Vedenisov’s passion lay in photography. Continue reading »
Paris in Vivid Color Images by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont, 1923
Paris as seen from the church of Saint Gervais.
Jules Gervais-Courtellemont/National Geographic Creative/Corbis
These colored photos by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont will take you back through time to see how Paris looked in 1923. The vivid images are produced using the autochrome technique in which the plates are covered in microscopic red, green and blue colored potato starch grains (about four million per square inch). Continue reading »
These Early 1900s Color Autochrome Images Look Like Literal Dreams
1909 “The Japanese parasol.”
John Cimon Warburg/SSPL/Getty Images
Born into a wealthy family, John Cimon Warburg (1867 – 1931) was able to devote his time wholeheartedly to photography because bad asthma stopped him from working in a full time job and a private income gave him economic freedom. He excelled at the autochrome process, giving lectures and writing extensively on the subject. Although never a member of The Linked Ring, he seems to have been something of a linchpin in the photographic world. Continue reading »
These Autochrome Photos From The 1920s And ’30s Resulted An A Painting-Like Quality That Not Even Today’s Best Instagram Filters Can Replicate
The method used to make these dreamy photographs resulted in a painting-like quality that not even today’s best Instagram filters can replicate. Continue reading »
