These stunning color photos, created with autochrome, date back to 1903. These photos aren’t newly-colorized. Autochrome was a technique patented by the Lumiere brothers in 1903—a painstakingly slow and pricey way to create photographs.
Because of this, most autochrome photos you see are stylized and posed. I love the vibrant, glowing look of autochrome. What a treat it must have been to be photographed in autochrome color during the early 20th century!
From Instagram:
“Believe it or not, these photographs taken between 1903-1920 are NOT colorized. The early photographic technique called autochrome was patented by the Lumiere brothers in 1903, and involved using several layers of glass plates which filter the light spectrum, and somehow create these magical full-color images. It was a long, slow, and expensive process, which is why most autochrome photographs are very artistic posed pictures. Included here are photographs of Mark Twain, Monet in his garden, several of French soldiers in 1914, and other artistic photographs of daily life in rural Europe. All these pictures have been digitally cleaned up by Stuart Humphreys, who does amazing work sharpening the image, but the color it real. You can see more of his work on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/StuartHumphryes
Credit: Elizabeth Camden.”
(Screen shot from Anonymous Works on Instagram)
