Sometimes the world really is in black & white

Posted on Monday 24 April 2006 to unknown


This is an early colour photograph taken by Paul Castelnau in June 1917. It shown French troops standing out the front of a destroyed house near the village of Eglingen in Haut-Rhin in France. Castelnau took this image using the autochrome process invented by the Lumière Brothers (also famous as pioneers of cinematography).



Autochrome of the ruins of the city of Reims, 1917.

Note in the last picture the deterioration in the autochrome's multi-layer plates which has led to a loss of pigmentation on the right half. Of course this subject matter hardly does justice to the autochrome technique, I was just drawn to the haunting quality of these images.

For a few more autochromes see Mark Twain in Colour.

(Reposted from Feb 04)