50 Oldest Color Photos Show How The World Looked 100 Years Ago
When you think of old photographs, you naturally think in terms of black and white, but as you can see from these stunning photographs from the turn of the 20th century, color photography has been around for a lot longer than you think.
Before 1907, if you wanted a color photograph then you (well, a professional colorist) basically had to color it in using different dyes and pigments, but two French brothers called Auguste and Louis Lumière changed all that with a game-changing process that they called the Autochrome Lumière. Using dyed grains of potato starch and light-sensitive emulsion, they were able to produce vibrant photographs without the need for additional colorization. Despite being difficult to manufacture and also somewhat expensive, the process was very popular among amateur photographers and one of the world’s first books of color photography was published using the Autochrome Lumière technique.
The brothers revolutionized the world of color photography until Kodak took things to a whole new level with the invention of Kodachrome film in 1935, a lighter and more convenient alternative that quickly made the Autochrome Lumière obsolete (although its popularity continued in France up until the 1950s). Kodachrome was also eventually overtaken by the rise of digital photography (Kodak stopped manufacturing Kodachrome in 2009), which is now by far the world’s most popular way to take pictures, but modern advances in photographic technology wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of early pioneers like Auguste and Louis Lumière. Scroll down for a collection of stunning century-old color photographs using their groundbreaking technique.
(h/t: boredpanda )
#1 Christina In Red, 1913
#2 Sisters Sitting In A Garden Tying Roses Together, 1911
#3 Flower Street Vendor, Paris, 1914
#4 Musing (Mrs. A. Van Besten), C. 1910
#5 The Eiffel Tower, Paris, 1914
#6 Daydreams, 1909
#7 Heinz And Eva On The Hillside, 1925
#8 Moulin Rouge, Paris, 1914
#9 The Grenata Street Army, 1915
#10 A Girl Holds A Doll Next To Soldiers’ Equipment In Reims, France, 1917
#11 Young Girl Amidst Marguerites, C. 1912
#12 Among The First Coloured Pictures Ever Taken By Louis Lumière, 1907
#13 Charlie Chaplin, 1918
#14 Woman Smoking Opium, 1915
#15 Two Girls In Oriental Costume, 1908
#16 Outdoor Market, Paris, 1914
#17 Autochrome Of Mark Twain, 1908
#18 Air Balloons, Paris, 1914
#19 Van Besten Painting In His Garden, 1912
#20 Two Girls On A Balcony, 1908
#21 Woman And Girl By A Brook, 1910
#22 Eva And Heinz On The Shore Of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, C. 1927
#23 Family Portrait At Roannay, Belgium, 1913
#24 Christina In Red, 1913
#25 Apan (Young Samurai), 1912
#26 Sweden, Near Gagnef (Mother And Daughter In Traditional Clothes), 1910
#27 Mother Of Seven Making Fringes For Knitted Shawls, Galway, Ireland, 29 May 1913
#28 Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mostar, 1913
#29 Joan In Red Riding Hood Cape With Basket, 1907
#30 Lanchester 38hp Tourer, 1913
#31 An Autochrome Of Two Sisters, 1908
#32 Louis Lumière’s Daughter And Her Dolls, 1913
#33 Autochrome Of Else Paneth On A Camel, 1913
#34 Else Reading By The Nile, 1920
#35 Autochorme By Etheldreda Janet Laing, 1912
#36 Japan, Kyoto, 1912
#37 Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo, 1912
#38 Gas Balloons, Paris, 1914
#39 Metro, Paris, 1914
#40 An Autochrome Of Etheldreda Janet Laing Daughter In A Garden, Holding A Brightly Coloured Bunch Of Pink Flowers, 1908
#41 Porte Saint Denis, Paris, 1914
#42 The Neptune Fountain, Cheltenham, 1910
#43 Girl In A Garden With Hollyhocks, 1908
#44 Lunch Of A French Soldier In Front Of A Damaged Library, 1st April 1917
#45 Egypt, Giza, 1913
#46 Mongolia, Near Ulaanbaatar (Buddhist Lama), 1913
#47 Mrs. Warburg, 1915
#48 Autochrome Of A Young Girl, 1910
#49 Market Stalls Outside An Egyptian Ruin, 1913
#50 Children By The Breakwater, 1908
Andrius
In cahoots with the secret orde… With nobody. In cahoots with nobody.
