The Autochrome Process
The Autochrome process, fittingly invented by Auguste and Louis Lumière (whose name translates to “light” in English), was the first practical color photographic process. The two Lumière brothers, who were innovators in a variety of fields including medical research, also invented the cinématographe, an early motion picture camera (Wood). In 1895, they created a film, “La sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière,” (literally, workers leaving their self-titled factory), which is considered to be the first motion picture (Britannica). Despite their typical forward thinking, they seem to have badly miscalculated motion film’s future, preferring instead to turn their attention back to photography.
Lumière, Auguste. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.
Fortunately, this led to the further development of the Autochrome process, which created images that are today rare and considered unique in their beauty. First patented in 1904, the process was not commercially available until 1907, when the Lumières demonstrated it at the Photo-Club de Paris (Wood). Autochromes, like other forms of color photography, made use of basic color principles to combine primary colors and thereby create an accurate reflection of the whole spectrum.
Sunday at Rye Beach, New York. Genthe, Arnold. between 1911-1942.
LOC Prints and Photographs Division
Unlike other processes, however, the first step for making Autochromes involved potatoes. Potato starch, ground into tiny particles as small as thousandths of a millimeter were dyed into red-orange, green and violet (Wood). A mixture of these particles was then spread over a glass plate, which had already been varnished to make them stick. Charcoal dust spread over the mixture prevented light from passing between the potato grains. The whole mixture was then flattened and coated with a silver-bromide emulsion (Britannica).
Once placed in the camera, light rays would pass through the starch grains, at which time the colored particles would absorb their matching colors and allow other light to pass through to the emulsion. The process would first produce a black and white negative. This would then be developed into a positive, resulting in a glass transparency with a similar color effect to the dots of pointillist painting (Ritzenthaler).
Although most photographers at the time were used to processes that seem arduous to us today, there were several drawbacks to the Autochrome process. These included:
- An extra long exposure time due to the large amount of light that the starch absorbed
- The uniqueness of each image (like a daguerreotype) makes it special, but doesn't allow for multiple images to be made one time
- Have to be held up to light to be properly viewed; a tool commonly used for this at the time was the diascope. Today other resources can be used, like the backlighting seen below
Some of National Geographic's collection of autochromes, backlit for viewing
Stephen Crowley, The New York Times
- Because of the exposure time and labor involved, most autochromes featuring people were posed, adding to the painterly effect, and lacking some of the journalistic qualities that photography was beginning to value
American Indian standing beside a horse. Genthe, Arnold. between 1906 and 1928.
LOC Prints and Photograph Division
Despite these drawbacks, which prevented the Autochrome process from becoming a predominant method for photography, seeing color images today dating back to the earliest part of the 20th century can be an incredible experience, particularly if someone is unaware that color photography even existed at this time. Below is the original page from a National Geographic feature on color photography in 1914, which featured the first color photograph they ever published.
Flower Garden in Ghent, Belgium. Paul G. Guillumette, 1914. National Geographic
National Geographic has a collection of over 15,000 autochromes, some prints of which were put on exhibit in 2010 at the Steven Kasher gallery in New York:
Works Cited:
Crowley, Stephen. "Autochrome's Enduring Allure." New York Times, 2010.
Encyclopedia Britannica. "Lumiere Brothers (French Inventors)."
Ritzenthaler, Mary Lynn and Diane Vogt O'Connor. Photographs: Archival Care and Managment. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2006.
Wood, John. The Art of the Autochrome: The Birth of Color Photography. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1993.
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