Comments on: Color Photographs of the French Army in WW1

Color Photographs of the French Army in WW1

pandaharma — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 04:48:58 -0800

Color Photographs of the French Army in WW1 (via MemeFirst)

By: pandaharma

pandaharma — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 04:50:46 -0800

Assuming I read the comments correctly, these photos were not digitally enhanced but used a rather interesting method for generating color. "Louis Lumière, however, devised a method of filtering light by using a single three-colour screen made up of millions of grains of potato starch dyed in three different colours. This mixture was then laid out on a varnished glass plate, which would be ready for use once it was coated in a black and white emulsion. Developing the plate entailed applying the same process as was used for black and white photographs at the time, with the impression being processed to reversal."

By: AwkwardPause

AwkwardPause — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 05:00:05 -0800

Where's the photo of Bruce Willis?

By: psmealey

psmealey — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 05:05:49 -0800

Wow. Those are incredible. Thanks, pandaharma, that was an excellent find!

By: a3matrix

a3matrix — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 05:10:36 -0800

Very nice. Thanks for the post.

By: PenDevil

PenDevil — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 05:12:21 -0800

Here's a gallery of photos done in the same way of Tsarist Russia : The Empire That Was Russia.

By: Zonker

Zonker — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 05:50:02 -0800

Agreed, this is a wonderful link. Many thanks.

By: raygirvan

raygirvan — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 05:52:05 -0800

Pardon the self-links, but I collected a few more examples of early colour photography a while back: the work of Frank Hurley, various pre-WW1 and WW1 photos, early autochromes, and highlights of the Prokudin-Gorskii collection PenDevil mentioned.

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 06:42:27 -0800

Awesome. The church with the fresh graves is now my wallpaper.

By: tcp

tcp — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 06:55:13 -0800

[this is good!]

By: putzface_dickman

putzface_dickman — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 07:29:17 -0800

I find these extremely moving. Odd, given my distance from the subject matter. I had the same reaction to the Prokudin-Gorskii photos when they were linked here. My circular reasoning for why I think that happens: Our relationship to the past is mediated by the media available to understand it. Sure, WW1 didn't happen in black & white, but paintings, b & w photos, books, small portions of b & w film, artifacts, are the only access I've had to the era. This probably feels different to people living near the Argonne or Somme. These color photos feel more immediate than the other available media. Color photos aren't life. They are selectively composed, framed by a context created by our collectively mediated understanding of what we're looking at, boxed in by the narratives we'll personally read into them. But there is a jump, a jolt caused by a perceived immediacy of encountering color images of a time we don't typically have access to in color photography.

By: picea

picea — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 07:49:05 -0800

C'est formidable! And I totally agree there, putzface.

By: chicobangs

chicobangs — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 08:21:28 -0800

These are phenomenal photos. Never mind their historical importance or their sheer age, they're gorgeous. Thanks for this, pandaharma (and ray). Seriously. Wow.

By: silusGROK

silusGROK — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 08:28:11 -0800

What I can't get over (besides the time someone took to add some architectural niceties to the wooden latrine) is the fidelity — the colors in these photographs seem very close to true, certainly "truer" than the film from the 60s and 70s.

By: briank

briank — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 08:58:17 -0800

I loved those Russian photos, but found that they made those places seem otherworldly. These photos, by contrast, are very humanizing and convey a sense of immediacy (as putzface says). Excellent.

By: terrapin

terrapin — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 09:03:16 -0800

I like the one of the soldier taking a wizz. Really humanises the war and the people who fought it.

By: Satapher

Satapher — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 10:41:01 -0800

that bearded man is in a dress

By: sklero

sklero — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 14:06:25 -0800

Very nice.

By: dazed_one

dazed_one — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 15:32:44 -0800

This is great. Thanks.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Sat, 16 Oct 2004 00:19:44 -0800

Nice find. :)